Anesthesia Affects The Heart

Anesthesia Affects The Heart.
More disquiet about the safety of a common anesthetic has been raised in a different study. Patients who received the anesthesia drug etomidate during surgery might be at increased peril for cardiovascular problems or death, according to the study, which was published in the December issue of the journal Anesthesia and Analgesia. An accompanying leading article in the journal said the findings add to growing concerns about the use of the drug. The examine compared about 2100 patients who received etomidate and about 5200 patients who received another intravenous anesthetic called propofol.

All of the patients in the library underwent surgery that didn't betoken the heart. Compared to those who received propofol, patients who received etomidate had a significantly higher chance of death within 30 days after surgery, according to a journal news release. The risk was 6,5 percent in the etomidate party and 2,5 percent in the propofol group, said study chief Dr Ryu Komatsu, of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

The patients in the etomidate group also had a 50 percent higher jeopardy of major cardiovascular problems than those in the propofol group, according to the study. Although the researchers found a higher danger of death and cardiac problems among patients who received etomidate compared to those who received propofol, the over did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

The findings are "striking and troubling," but the den is not the first to raise safety concerns over etomidate, Dr Matthieu Legrand and Dr Benoit Plaud, of Paris-Diderot University, in France, said in an accompanying documentation editorial. "There is accumulating display for an association between mortality and etomidate use, both in critically ill patients and now in non-critically disturbing patients undergoing noncardiac surgery". Etomidate has only short-lasting effects, and it's not determined how it could affect patients several weeks after surgery, Legrand and Plaud said. Large-scale studies are needed to make up one's mind the safety of etomidate prosta. Until then, it might be wise to use other anesthesia drugs, they suggested.