31 May Pre-Operative Low Blood Pressure Linked To Increased Mortality After Surgery and Anesthesia

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof. Dr. Robert Sanders MD
Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology & Critical Care Trials & Interdisciplinary Outcomes Network (ACTION)
Department of Anesthesiology
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Dr. Sanders: While it is known that chronic raised blood pressure exerts important effects on long term health outcomes, it is unclear how pre-operative blood pressure levels effect risk from surgery. In this study we show that after adjustment for other diseases, high blood pressure does not increase perioperative risk. Rather low blood pressure is associated with an increase in risk of death following surgery and anesthesia.

Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Dr. Sanders: Based on our study, clinicians and patients should be aware that having low blood pressure is associated with increased risk of death following surgery. Future research must focus on the mechanisms through which low blood pressure before the operation may lead to increased risk.

Citation:

presented at this year’s Euroanaesthesia Congress 2015 in Berlin, Germany

‘Study of over 250,000 patients suggests that, before an operation, low blood pressure rather than high is a risk factor for death’

ESA (European Society of Anaesthesiology)

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Prof. Dr. Robert Sanders MD, Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology & Critical Care Trials & Interdisciplinary Outcomes Network (ACTION), Department of Anesthesiology, & University of Wisconsin, Madison (2015). Pre-Operative Low Blood Pressure Linked To Increased Mortality After Surgery and Anesthesia 

Last Updated on May 31, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD