Adam’s Heart Valve Surgery Blog

NEW STUDY ON ANGIOGRAMS AND HEART SURGERY SHOWS NO RISK; ONLY UPSIDE SPECIFIC TO PATIENT TIME, MONEY AND STRESS ACCORDING TO MAYO CLINIC

Patients who are to undergo heart surgery generally have their angiography tests several days or weeks before their operation, the reason being that such angiography might lead to kidney failure. Now a new study by doctors at the Mayo Clinic has found that heart surgery patients can have angiography tests on the same day as elective valve surgery without facing any additional risks.

A team of doctors at the Mayo Clinic led by Dr. Hartzell Schaff performed elective valve repair or replacement surgery on 226 patients between August 2000 and August 2004. All the patients had received an angiography on the morning of their surgery.

The doctors observed that none of the patients going into surgery faced any complications on account of the tests. Only four patients were found to have developed renal failure, at rate of 2.2%. This was well within the normal renal failure range of 1.1 to 3.7%.

Of these four patients, one died due to multi-organ failure, giving a mortality rate of 0.4%, which again was in the normal range. This led doctors to the conclusion that angiography tests for patients of elective valve surgery on the same day as the procedure does not in any way increase risks of complications.

The doctors believe this is on account of the significant improvements in methods that have been achieved over the years. “It has become exceedingly safe and a very simple procedure because they use smaller catheters and smaller amounts of dye,” explained Dr. Schaff, co-author of the study and a cardiac surgeon at the Mayo Clinic.

“In properly selected patients, same-day coronary angiography is safe and has little impact on renal function,” the authors concluded in a paper published in this month’s issue of Mayo Proceedings. Dr. Schaff however stressed that angiography tests should be carried out same day of surgery only for patients who are stable and have a low risk of renal failure.

There are roughly 48,000 heart valve replacement or repair surgeries in the US every year and majority of these are elective. The new procedure found by the doctors can save these patients not just money but also relieve them of the stress of having to visit the hospital multiple times.

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 11th, 2007 at 8:17 am and is filed under Heart Valve Surgery, Studies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Print This Post | EMail This Post.