Whats New in the Patient Safety World
November 2013
Another Assault on Perioperative Beta-Blockers
It seems like we are doing a column on
perioperative beta blockers almost every month! Well, not quite but see the
list below of all our prior columns on the topic.
Yet another study is questioning the use of
beta blockers perioperatively. Dalal and colleagues (Dalal
2013) did a retrospective review of over 750 randomly chosen patients who
underwent non-cardiac surgery. Beta-blocker
use was found to increase the odds of having an acute coronary event by a
factor of 21.76. Beta blocker use was also associated with decompensated heart
failure (odds ratio 4.50). Unexpectedly, the risk of arrhythmias was also
increased in patients on beta blockers (odds ration 2.28).
But there have been enough retrospective reviews, some concluding that perioperative beta blockers are good and others that they are bad. The controversy is not going to go away until a large randomized controlled trial is undertaken using a beta-blockade regimen that everyone can agree upon.
Our prior columns on perioperative use of beta blockers:
November 20, 2007 New Evidence Questions Perioperative Beta Blocker Use
November 4, 2008 Beta Blockers Take More Hits
December 2009 Updated Perioperative Beta Blocker Guidelines
November 2010 More Perioperative Beta Blocker Controversy
November 2012
Beta
Blockers Losing Their Luster?
May 2013 Beta
Blocker Debate Just Wont Go Away
September 2013 More
Perioperative Beta-Blocker Controversy
References:
Dalal P, Varma D, Hegazy H. Do Beta-Blockers Increase Perioperative Cardiac Morbidity? Chest 2013; 144(4_MeetingAbstracts):166A. doi:10.1378/chest.1704913
http://journal.publications.chestnet.org/article.aspx?articleid=1740457
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