(192) RN9 (Water Separation)

[HB KIM]

Clinical Indication of RN9 (Shuifen)

1. Name
"Shui" means Water and "Fen" means divide, separate, or split.  The name implies that this point divides Water, or separates urine and stool.

2. Water
When a patient has severe thirst and drinks a large amount of water, you can use RN9 (Water Divide) with DU26 (Water Trough), LI11(Pool at the Bend),and SJ4 (Yang Pool).  As you see all of these points include the nature of water in their names.

3. Watery Diarrhea
This point is very good for acute and severe diarrhea.  You can also moxa DU20.  It is good for diarrhea like water or diarrhea that includes undigested food.  For regular diarrhea, ST34 and UB60 are good.  For diarrhea due to stress, HT7 is good.  For children's diarrhea, apply an intradermal needle on ST25.  For watery diarrhea, RN9 is the best.

4. Edema
As the name implies, this point has a strong action on fluid transformation and distribution, so it is used for edema.  It is also located over the SI which is the organ that separates the clear from the turbid.  For edema, ST28 (Water pathway) can be combined to this point.  If you use both sides of ST28 with RN9, it makes the shape of a triangle.  Triangle-shaped treatments are very stable and lead to good results.  These two points are used for Yin-edema (SP/KD Yang deficiency type) rather than Yang-edema (Acute Wind-edema).

5. Moxa
For both watery diarrhea and edema, moxa is better than acupuncture on this point.  Some classics (Illustrated Classic of Acupuncture Points on the Bronze Man, Illustrated Supplement to the Classic of Categories), say this point is even contraindicated to needle for 'water diseases'.  So, Moxa should be used rather than acupuncture.

6. Caution
Deep puncture is prohibited to avoid peritonitis, esp. for thin patients.  This is another reason to apply moxa rather than acupuncture on RN9.