Background: Forty percent of Americans utilize integrative medicine including intake of natural products (NP), mind-body practices (MBP), and traditional healing approaches. The integrative medicine utilization rate amongst... [ view full abstract ]
Background: Forty percent of Americans utilize integrative medicine including intake of natural products (NP), mind-body practices (MBP), and traditional healing approaches. The integrative medicine utilization rate amongst plastic surgery patients has been reported to be as high as 80%. Given the high prevalence of usage amongst our patient population, we performed a systematic review of integrative medicine studies in plastic surgery to evaluate outcomes and publication trends.
Methods: A systematic review of articles evaluating integrative medicine amongst plastic surgery patients revealed 61 articles and 12 were excluded. Data regarding article focus (NP vs MBP), conclusion (beneficial, neutral, or harmful), year of publication, and journal type were recorded.
Results: Of the 49 studies analyzed, 31 articles (63.3%) evaluated NP, 16 (32.7%) studied MBP, and 2 (4%) examined mixed techniques. 10 (32.3%) NP studies demonstrated beneficial outcomes. In contrast, 14 of 16 (87.5%) MBP studies concluded beneficial outcomes. The majority of NP studies (93.5%) appeared after 2000 and most (77.4%) were published in core plastic surgery journals. In contrast, 7 (43.8%) MBP studies appeared after 2000 and only 5 (31.3%) were published in core plastic journals.
Conclusion: Plastic surgeons are currently receiving a biased perspective of integrative medicine in the literature that is focused on the impact of natural products on plastic surgery patients. While these findings are important for the plastic surgeon to be aware of, studies evaluating mind-body practices in plastic surgery patients have consistently demonstrated promising results and have the potential to improve the care of our patients.
