Statins Good Run-up to Heart Surgery

A study by researchers from the University of Cologne in Germany suggests that heart patients who are administered cholesterol-fighting statin drugs prior to going under the knife for heart surgery face comparatively fewer complications after surgery. Such patients are also much less likely to die, the study published in the European Heart Journal said.

Statins are heart medications generally prescribed to people who have high-cholesterol levels which are threatening their heart. They are currently the highest selling medications in the world. Several studies have been conducted on the beneficial effects of statins on the heart with most of them finding the drugs to be extremely good at cutting both heart and stroke risk.

For their study, Dr. Oliver Liakopoulos and colleagues looked at 19 studies covering more than 31,000 patients. Their research provides some of the strongest evidence till date of how good statins are for the heart and especially before heart surgery. They found that patients who were given statins were 43 percent less likely to die following the heart surgery compared to people who were not.

Post-operative risk of irregular heartbeats and stroke were also found to be reduced by 33 percent and 26 percent respectively. However, the researchers were disappointed to find that just about half of the 31,000 people received statins before surgery. In their opinion, too few doctors are prescribing these medications.

“This is the first big summary of all the existing studies about people undergoing cardiac surgery,” said Dr. Liakopoulos. “What our study underscores is the need to increase statin therapy. More patients should receive statins.”

As the patients covered had been on statins anywhere from a few days to a few months, the research did not shed light on what would be the right dose or the length of treatment with statins. At the same time, the researchers found that there was no effect on post-operative heart attacks or kidney failure from the medications.

“We can’t say how much or how long is optimal but these are things that need to be looked at in further studies,” Dr. Liakopoulos concluded.

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