Abstract
Background: This study aimed to survey the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies in Japanese children with major pediatric surgical diseases. Methods: This survey was mailed to each family of 355 patients. Results: One hundred fifty-three (43%) of 355 mailed questionnaires were completely returned. Forty-one (27%) of 153 parents responded that they used CAM for their child. There was no significant difference in CAM use according to sex, mean age, follow-up duration, family CAM users, and associated disorders between CAM users and non-users. Children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) were significantly more likely to use CAM than children without IBD (65% vs 21%, p = 0.0001). Only 20% of parents informed the attending physicians about CAM before its use. Conclusions: It is important for physicians caring for children with pediatric surgical disease, especially IBD, to be familiar with common forms of CAM.
Highlights
Interest in the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has greatly increased in developed countries for the last 2 decades [1,2]
This study aimed to evaluate the use of CAM therapies at home in Japanese children with major pediatric surgical diseases in a single center experience
The present study demonstrated that CAM use in Japanese patients who had undergone operation for pediatric surgical disease had no relationship with sex, age, duration of disease, parents’ use, and associated disorders
Summary
Interest in the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has greatly increased in developed countries for the last 2 decades [1,2]. Studies on the use of CAM in healthy children and adolescents have been reported [3,4,5,6]. This study aimed to survey the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies in Japanese children with major pediatric surgical diseases. Children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) were significantly more likely to use CAM than children without IBD (65% vs 21%, p = 0.0001). Conclusions: It is important for physicians caring for children with pediatric surgical disease, especially IBD, to be familiar with common forms of CAM
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