Traditional cauterization among children in Bint Al-Huda Hospital in Al-Nasiriya City, Iraq.

Cutaneous cautery is a form of traditional medicine practiced in many countries. It was mentioned in the books of many ancient, pre-, and post-Islamic scholars. Patients may resort to traditional medicine (cauterization in particular) for many reasons. This study aims is to acquire more knowledge about the cautery practices and the reasons for practicing cautery in children together with other implications from adverse events of the cautery. This is a cross-sectional study in which 133 children were enrolled (77 males and 56 females with age ranged from 0.5 to 108 months) who had been admitted to Bint Al-Huda Maternity and Childhood Teaching Hospital in Nasiriya city, Thi-Qar Governorate, Southern Iraq, from December 1, 2019 to end of July 2020). The study found that >80% of cauterized children were below 1 year, (53.4%) of rural residency. Parents of the cauterized children were mainly of illiterate and primary education constituting the highest percentage (91.6%) of cauterized children were of low per capita monthly income. The grandmothers were advisors in more than half of the cauterized children, a vast majority of the advisors were either illiterate or had primary education, The person performing the cautery was a traditional healer (95.5%). Cauterization was done mostly in the head and abdomen, and a vast majority of it was done by a lighted cotton-tipped application (97%). The number of cauterization points ranged from 2 to 25 with a mean of 8.8 cautery marks. Approximately 59% of patients did not improve or worsened, whereas 30% showed partial improvement, and 11% improved. Complications were seen in 9% of the cases. There is a necessity to spread awareness regarding the dangers and complications of traditional cauterization in health care centers by health care providers. Improving the delivery of medical services to areas far from the city centers as well as spreading health awareness by use of multimedia together with eradicating illiteracy is needed.