Continuing medications up to and on operation day linked to better survival rates in study
FRIDAY, March 17, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery patients taking statins may improve their survival odds if the medication is continued up to the day of surgery, according to a study published online March 16 in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.
Wei Pan, M.D., a cardiovascular anesthesiologist at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston, and colleagues evaluated data for 3,025 patients who underwent CABG surgery.
The researchers found that the all-cause mortality rate within 30 days was 1.7 percent for those who took statins 24 hours or less before their operation. In those who took statins 24 to 72 hours before their operation, the rate of death was 2.9 percent. And, for those who never took statins or who took statins more than 72 hours before the surgery, the mortality rate was 3.8 percent.
"In conclusion, we found that the timing and the dose of statin before CABG are associated with 30-day all-cause mortality," the authors write. "Specifically, the dose of atorvastatin more than 20 mg or equivalent and the timing of the dose 24 hours or less before operation were independently associated with decreased postoperative mortality."
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