How to manage glucose during heart surgery

ATLANTA, Oct 24, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A Columbia University anesthesiology research team has completed the first human study involving protease inhibitor aprotinin during bypass surgery.

The researchers said they found aprotinin is associated with lower blood glucose levels during coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

The study showed CABG patients receiving aprotinin had 24 percent lower blood glucose levels and a decrease in perioperative insulin resistance compared with patients not receiving aprotinin.

The association of aprotinin with reduced glucose levels during CABG surgery is an important finding for diabetic patients. More than a half million people undergo cardiac surgery annually in the United States and one-third of them have diabetes.

Abnormally high levels of blood glucose during surgery can lead to serious complications including cardiac disease, renal dysfunction, and retina damage, as well as an increased risk of infections of up to 86 percent.

Robert Frumento, lead investigator of the study and researcher at the department of anesthesiology at Columbia University Medical Center, said, "The next step will be to conduct a larger, randomized trial on non-diabetic patients before expanding studies to the more vulnerable diabetic patient population."

The research was presented Monday during the American Society of Anesthesiologists annual meeting in Atlanta.

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