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News - St John Regional Hospital, Saint John New Brunswick Canada |
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| St John Regional Hospital |
| Preoperative Statins Found to Reduce AF and Length of Stay But Not Mortality |
| Date : - 19/04/2012 |
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In a systematic review published in the Cochrane Library investigators at the University of Cologne in Germany analyzed data from 11 trials that tested the effects of preoperative statins in 984 patients undergoing heart surgery. Preoperative administration of statins reduced the risk of developing atrial fibrillation (AF) and shortened the length of stay on the ICU and in the hospital, but did not have a statistically significant effect on mortality or MI:
Post-operative AF: OR: 0.40, CI: 0.29 to 0.55, p<0.01
Short-term mortality: OR: 0.98, CI: 0.14 to 7.10, p=0.98
ICU length of stay: WMD (weighted mean difference): -3.39 hours, CI -5.77 to -1.01
Hospital length of stay: WMD: -0.48 days, CI: -0.85 to -0.11
MI: OR: 0.52, CI: 0.2. to 1.30
The authors noted that the studies mostly contained patients undergoing myocardial revascularization, so the findings may not apply to other cardiac procedures.
“To get a clearer picture of the potential benefits of taking statins before a heart operation, we need to have more clinical trials and find out whether clinical outcomes can be further improved if patients use special statin dosing regimens shortly before a heart procedure,” said lead researcher Oliver Liakopoulos, in a Cochrane Library press release.
Here is the press release from the Cochrane Library:
Pre-Operative Statins Can Help Patients Who Undergo Heart Surgery
Pre-operative statin therapy can reduce the chance of post-operative atrial fibrillation and shortens the stay on the intensive care unit (ICU) and in the hospital in patients who undergo cardiac surgery, according to a new systematic review by Cochrane researchers. However, statin pre-treatment had no influence on the risk of dying, stroke, heart attack or kidney failure around the time of the operation.
Statins are known to help lower the levels of lipids in people’s blood. This in turn reduces the risk of patients with coronary heart disease dying. Before this study, it was unclear whether patients who are about to undergo heart surgery would also benefit if they took statins before the operation.
A team of researchers based at the University of Cologne in Germany, analysed data found in 11 randomized controlled studies. These studies included a total of 984 participants who were undergoing different forms of heart surgery.
They found that giving statins before surgery reduced the incidence of post-operative atrial fibrillation, suggesting a beneficial effect for patients with a statin treatment when compared to patients without a statin therapy. In addition, they discovered that patients who had statins before the operation tended to leave the ICU about three-and-a half hours earlier, and left hospital about half a day earlier. There was, however, no significant reduction in the proportion of people who had a heart attack or kidney failure subsequently. Furthermore, statins had no effect on the number of people who died or had a stroke soon after the operation.
The researchers point to one limitation of their findings. “Since the data we analysed had come mainly from patients having coronary artery bypass operations, the results cannot be extrapolated to patients undergoing other cardiac procedures such as heart valve or aortic surgery,” says lead researcher Oliver J. Liakopoulos, who works in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Cologne’s Heart Centre.
At the same time, the researchers emphasise the need for more data. “To get a clearer picture of the potential benefits of taking statins before a heart operation, we need to have more clinical trials and find out whether clinical outcomes can be further improved if patients use special statin dosing regimens shortly before a heart procedure,” says Liakopoulos.
Full citation: Liakopoulos OJ, Kuhn EW, Slottosch I, Wassmer G,Wahlers T. Preoperative statin therapy for patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2012, Issue 4. Art. No.: CD008493. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD008493.pub2. |
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| Reference : - www.forbes.com/sites/larryhusten/2012/04/18/preoperative-statins-found-to-reduce-af-and-lengt |
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