Evaluation of medical drug and herbal product use before anesthesia

WOS: 000374655200518We aimed to determine the prevalence of herbal product and medical drug use among preoperative patients. Patients over the age of 18 applied for preanesthetic evaluation were directly asked by anesthesiologists if they were using any drug. Patients were also asked whether they use any herbal product. We also asked patients whether they know the side effects of herbal product or any drug they have used. 898 surgical patients were evaluated in the anesthesia assessment unit before surgery for a 3-month period. 43.4% patients were taking medical drugs. 9.5% patients reported taking herbal products and 21 of those patients were consuming more than one. 33 of all patients were using both medical drug and herbal product. The most commonly consumed herbal products, in descending order of frequency, were green tea (n=29), lime (n=20), garlic (n=8), ginger (n=7) nettle (n=7) ye daisy (n=5). 375 patients reported using medical drug in the initial assesment. Whereas only 4 patients reported consuming herbal product in the initial assesment. 38 (9.7%) of patients using medical drug and 3 (3.5%) of patients using herbal product said that they know the side effects of drugs. Usage of herbal product is common among patients undergoing surgery. Anesthesiologists should be aware of the herbal use because the patients may not give information about herbal consumption. Most commonly used herbal products may vary according to regions. Most of the patients do not know the side effects of both medical drug and herbal products