Bougie trauma – what trauma?

Making herbal medicines safeHodges and Kam highlight the adverse effects of the more commonly used herbal medicines in their recent review (Hodges & Kam.Anaesthesia 2002; 57: 889-99).Unfortunately, they do not make reference to the safety issues surrounding the licensing, manufacture, sale and prescription of herbal products.This omission is amended in the Editorial (Sehgal & Hall.Anaesthesia 2002; 57: 947-8).It is clear from this excellent Editorial that there are more complex issues involved in the integration of complementary medicine than mere pharmacology.The current unsatisfactory legal environment surrounding herbal medicines has lead to calls for a 'special' licensing system for herbal medicines.This arrangement has been in existence in European countries such as France and Germany for more than a decade.We await the report of the Herbal Medicine Regulatory Working Group with much interest.The Irish Medicines Board has recently moved to classify herbal products as medicines, which means they must be prescribed by a physician [1].This makes the products relatively inaccessible to the consumer as few doctors are familiar with herbal medicines.Such a measure may boost sales of herbal products on the Internet or by direct marketing from other countries.Sehgal and Hall place much emphasis on the quality and quantity of information presented to the patient.Patients receive information regarding herbal medicines from a variety of sources: the Internet, magazines, television, recommendations from friends and