Herbal Drug Use and Surgery

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Study: Herbal Remedies Cause Problems in Surgery

Reuters

CHICAGO (July 10) - People undergoing surgery who take herbal remedies such

as garlic, ginkgo or ginseng risk excessive bleeding and other complications,

researchers said Tuesday.

The popular herbal medicines -- taken by an estimated 12 percent of Americans

for conditions ranging from back pain to depression -- may interact with

drugs prescribed for surgery and prevent clotting or increase the potency of

anesthetics, even if their use has been stopped days before, a report

summarizing the findings of previous studies said.

For instance, garlic, ginkgo, and ginseng can cause bleeding when combined

with commonly prescribed drugs used in surgery. Ephedra can cause irregular

heartbeat, ginseng may exacerbate low blood sugar, kava and valerian can

exaggerate the impact of anesthetics, St. 's wort can speed up the

metabolism, and echinacea poses a risk of poor wound healing and infection.

The eight herbal medications reviewed accounted for more than half of

single-herb preparations sold in the United States and ''potentially pose the

greatest impact to the care of patients undergoing surgery,''

anesthesiologist Ang-Lee of the Pritzker School of Medicine at the

University of Chicago wrote in this week's issue of the Journal of the

American Medical Association.

Patients and physicians were often unaware of the risks, and some patients

were hesitant to admit to their doctors they used herbal remedies, increasing

the likelihood of serious complications, the report said. It drew its

conclusions from studies and articles published on the subject since 1966 and

examined the remedies' pharmacological effects.

As many as one-third of surgical patients used the remedies, but 70 percent

did not tell their doctors, the report said.

Many patients did not meet the American Society of Anesthesiologists'

guideline to stop using herbal remedies at least two to three weeks prior to

surgery, it said.

''Clinicians also should recognize that discontinuation of all herbal

medications before surgery may not free a patient from risks related to their

use,'' it said.

REUTERS 11:05 07-10-01