[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.