COPD: A NEW BLOCKING SCHEME?
Can Beta Blockers Help Before Surgery?
A recent study has concluded that for COPD patients undergoing vascular surgery, administering beta-blocker medication beforehand can significantly improve mortality rates. Beta blockers, used to treat high blood pressure, angina and certain abnormal heart rhythms, have been used before some surgeries, but were not recommended for those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Many doctors thought they would aggravate and worsen a person's airway obstruction.
What researchers found in this particular study, however, was that COPD patients could tolerate beta blockers without having respiratory complications. More importantly, notes lead researcher Don Poldermans, MD, PhD, this may even protect them from cardiovascular complications after the surgery.
Dr. Poldermans' team at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands found that of the 3,371 patients they evaluated, patients with COPD who did not get beta blockers were twice as likely to die in the 30 days following vascular surgery than those who did (eight percent versus four percent). The conclusion contradicts other research that showed higher mortality rates among patients who were treated with beta blockers-those with and without COPD. But, "This study suggests that carefully selected patients with COPD, which is an extreme risk factor for cardiovascular disease...at least appear to tolerate cardio-selective beta-blocker therapy," says John E. Heffner, MD, past president of the American Thoracic Society.