[Complementary and alternative medicine use in surgical patients].

INTRODUCTION

Due to the rise in use of non-conventional therapies, we may consider the application of those in perioperative setting.

AIM

The aims of the authors were to measure the attitude of patients waiting for elective surgery towards naturopathic methods, to determine their use and factors influencing their usage.

METHOD

A questionnaire was applied that patients filled in individually and anonymously at the First Department of Surgery of Semmelweis University, between July 1, 2014 and April 30, 2016.

RESULTS

63.6% of the 519 participants (response rate = 21%) were interested in non-conventional therapies, and 26.8% of them applied naturopathy. In this group there were significantly more females (p = 0.022; OR: 1.066-2.3635), patients with university degree (p = 0.000315; OR: 1.3915-3.1132), aged 40-49 (p = 0.012419; OR: 1.1451-3.2405), and patients with hormonal disease (p = 0.039482; OR: 1.0186-5.7242). In terms of lifetime prevalence the most popular methods were traditional Chinese medicine (8.9%), alternative movement and massage therapy (7.5%) and homeopathy (7.3%). Only 12.9% of the patients reported the application of these methods to the physician.

CONCLUSION

Surgical patients are interested in naturopathic methods, and one-fourth of them actually use them even in the perioperative period. Orv. Hetil., 2016, 157(37), 1483-1488.