Objective: The prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in patients with various urologic disorders is unknown. We conducted the survey to determine the prevalence of CAM use in ambulatory patients.
Methods: We distributed questionnaires to 331 ambulatory patients with various urologic disorders in our department from March 10 to 31, 2004.
Results: One in third (30.5%) patients reported the use of at least one CAM. Patient age and gender were not associated with the frequency of the use of CAM. Although not statistically significant, patients with malignant disease showed a higher frequency of CAM use compared with patients with benign disease; 36.2% vs 27.0%, P=0.08. Among the CAM users, only 16 patients (15.8%) informed health care staff of their CAM use.
Conclusion: This result shows the current situation of CAM use in patients with urologic disorders. Because of the high prevalence, health care professionals should ask about patients' use of CAM.

A 50-year-old woman had a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube placed after surgery for pharyngeal cancer. After 21 months, the PEG tube was removed due to improvement of per-oral ingestion. She had taken prednisolone for 31 years for systemic lupus erythematosus. The post-PEG fistula did not close spontaneously. The cause of the fistula was slow wound healing and gastrostomy site inflammation due to long-term steroid therapy. We were able to close the fistula with an over-the-scope clipping (OTSC) system. This case suggests that OTSC is useful for closing persistent post-PEG fistulas in patients receiving long-term prednisolone therapy.
Eating ; Female ; Fibrosis ; Fistula* ; Gastrostomy* ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic ; Middle Aged ; Pharyngeal Neoplasms ; Prednisolone ; Steroids ; Wound Healing