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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Patients who are given beta-blockers around the time of a non-cardiac surgery could be at an increased risk of suffering a heart attack or dying within a month of their surgery, according to a new study.
Since non-cardiac surgeries still carry a risk of death, stroke or heart attack in patients who are at risk for heart disease, doctors are investigating ways to minimize those risks. Researchers have observed patients who take beta-blockers for high blood pressure have experienced fewer complications before surgeries.
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Researchers at the Veterans Affairs Boston Health Care System at Boston University and Harvard Medical School examined the records of 1,238 patients who underwent non-cardiac surgeries, such as plastic, vascular, abdominal or hernia repair surgeries, at one medical center in 2000. Before their surgeries, those patients were classified by their cardiac risks and the procedures risks. Around the time of surgery, 238 patients received beta-blockers and 408 did not.
Over the 30 days after surgery, the beta-blockers group had higher rates of heart attack (2.94 percent vs. 0.74 percent) and death (2.52 percent vs. 0.25 percent) than those in the control group, the authors reported.
None of the deaths occurred among patients who had been classified as high cardiac risk, researchers discovered. Scientists also found there seemed to be a link between those who died in the beta-blockers group and their pre-surgery heart rates.
The authors suggest a low pre-operation heart rate may be essential for patients to receive the protective effects of beta-blockers.
SOURCE: Archives of Surgery, 2008;143:940-944
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