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Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 617918, 9 pages
doi:10.1155/2012/617918
Use of Chinese Medicine and Subsequent Surgery in Women with Uterine Fibroid: A Retrospective Cohort Study
1Department of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, No. 2 Yuh-Der Road, Taichung 40447, Taiwan
2School of Post-Baccalaureate Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung 40402, Taiwan
3Department of Public Health, China Medical University, Taichung 40402, Taiwan
4Management Office for Health Data, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 40402, Taiwan
5Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772, USA
Received 18 June 2012; Revised 1 September 2012; Accepted 3 September 2012
Academic Editor: Tat leang Lee
Copyright © 2012 Shan-Yu Su et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background. Chinese medicine (CM) has been used to relieve symptoms relevant to uterine fibroids. Objective. This study investigated the association between the use of CM and the incidence of uterine surgery in women with uterine fibroids. Subjects and Methods. This retrospective cohort study extracted records for 16,690 subjects diagnosed with a uterine fibroid between 2000 and 2003 from the National Health Insurance reimbursement database. The risk factors for surgery were examined via Cox proportional hazard analysis, and the difference in incidence of surgery between CM users and nonusers was compared using incidence rate ratios (IRRs) derived from Poisson's models. Results. After an average follow-up period of 4.5 years, the cumulative incidence of uterine surgery was significantly lower in CM users than CM nonusers (). Compared to CM nonusers, CM users were more unlikely to undergo uterine surgery (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.18, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.17, 0.19). The incidence of surgery in CM users was dramatically different from that for CM nonusers (IRR = 0.17, 95% CI = 0.16, 0.18). Conclusion. The risk of uterine surgery among fibroid patients who used CM was significantly decreased, implying an effective treatment of fibroid-related symptoms provided by CM.