Cannabis Use Disorder May Up Risk of Perioperative Heart Attack

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 18, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Active cannabis use disorder is associated with an increased perioperative risk of myocardial infarction, according to a study published in the December issue of Anesthesiology.

Akash Goel, M.D., from the University of Toronto, and colleagues used data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (2006 to 2015; 4,186,622 U.S. adults aged 18 to 65 years). Patients were having one of 11 elective surgeries (total knee replacement, total hip replacement, coronary artery bypass graft, cesarean section, cholecystectomy, colectomy, hysterectomy, breast surgery, hernia repair, laminectomy, and other spine surgeries).

The researchers identified propensity-score matched-pairs cohort of 27,206 patients, of which 400 had and 415 did not have a reported active cannabis use disorder. There were no statistically significant differences between patients with and without cannabis use disorder for the composite perioperative outcome of in-hospital postoperative myocardial infarction, stroke, sepsis, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolus, acute kidney injury requiring dialysis, respiratory failure, and in-hospital mortality (unadjusted odds ratio [OR], 1.29; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.17 to 1.42; P < 0.001; adjusted OR, 0.97; 95 percent CI, 0.84 to 1.11; P = 0.63). However, the odds of postoperative myocardial infarction were higher for patients with reported active cannabis use disorder (adjusted OR, 1.88; 95 percent CI, 1.31 to 2.69; P < 0.001) versus patients without an active cannabis use disorder.

“Active cannabis use disorder is not associated with a change in overall perioperative morbidity, mortality, length of stay, or costs,” the authors write.

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