Study shows link between beta-blockers at non-cardiac surgery time and heart attack

NEW YORK A study published in the October issue of the journal Archives of Surgery has found that some patients taking beta-blockers close to the time they receive non-cardiac surgery may have higher rates of heart attack and death within 30 days of the surgery.

Non-cardiac surgery carries a risk of death, stroke or heart attack in patients who have or are at risk for heart disease, the study?s authors wrote in the background information for the article.

The authors of the study examined 1,238 patients who received non-cardiac surgery at hospitals in Boston in 2000, including plastic, vascular, abdominal and hernia-repair surgery. Before their procedures, patients were classified as having high, intermediate, low or negligible cardiac risk, and each procedure was also classified as high-, intermediate- or low-risk. Of the patients, 238 received beta-blockers around the time of their operations and were matched by age, sex, cardiac and procedure risk, smoking habits and kidney health to 408 patients who also underwent surgery but did not take beta-blockers.

Patients at all levels of cardiac risk who took beta-blockers had lower heart rates before and during surgery, but over the 30 days after surgery, their heart attack and death rates increased over those in the control group.