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Thursday, October 30, 2003Coronary patients preparing for dental work or surgery are often advised to stop taking aspirin in order to avoid increased bleeding,' Ferrari said in a statement. 'Our study serves as a reminder for all medical professionals who treat coronary patients that aspirin withdrawal should not be advised, and that alternative recommendations should be considered.' I wonder what "alternative recommendations" he has in mind? Live with your colon cancer so you can avoid another heart attack? Here's his data: Ferrari, from University Hospital Pasteur in Nice, France, and colleagues reviewed the cases of 1,236 patients with coronary artery disease who were hospitalized for an acute coronary syndrome, such as chest pain (unstable angina), clot formation in an implanted heart stent, or heart attack, between September 1999 and April 2002. They discovered that 51 had stopped taking aspirin less than one week prior to the event. This accounted for 4.1 percent of all the hospitalizations for coronary events. Prior to hospitalization, all patients had been taking aspirin for at least three months. That's a pretty small percentage. Probably much smaller than the percentage of people who bleed profusely during surgery if they continue to take their aspirin. So, Ferrari looked at his data this way: However, if you consider only patients who had a recurrent coronary event, 10 percent of those patients had stopped aspirin on average seven days before the event,' Ferrari said. 'I think it is a very important percentage,' he added. I don't. That means that 90% of heart patients had a recurrent event even when they took their aspirin every day. Still not worth the risk of bleeding during and after surgery. And consider this, patients on aspirin bleed and ooze a lot more into the field of surgery, making the surgeon's job all the more complicated, and increasing the risk of mistakes. I'd still recommend stopping aspirin before an invasive procedure. But then, I treat more than just the heart. posted by Sydney on 10/30/2003 10:09:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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