Complications and its correlation with the antihypertensive drug in arterial hypertensive patients, subjected to elective surgery under general anesthesia

Introduction: arterial hypertension is a highly prevalent and chronic entity, importantrisk factor for cardiovascular death. It is essential the pharmacological management tothe prevention of the damage of target organs.Objective: to estimate the association between the ingestion of preoperativeantihypertensive medication and the intraoperative complications in patients subjectedto general anesthesia.Methods: prospective cohort study. The sample is constituted by all arterial hypertensivepatients in regular pharmacological treatment, subjected to elective surgery undergeneral anesthesia at the Hospital Universitario del Caribe, Cartagena, Colombia, inthe period between March – December 2011. There were established two groups: (A)Exposed cohort: Patients whom took the antihypertensive medication the day of thesurgery. (B) Unexposed cohort: Patients whom by medical prescription or by their owndecision suspended the antihypertensive medication the day of the surgery. Data wassaved and analyzed by means of the statistic program EPI- INFO version 3.5.1. Itwas estimated the incidence of complications in both cohorts and subsequently it wascalculated relative risk with confidence interval of 95% in a general way and for eachantihypertensive drug.Results: intraoperative complications happened in 36.8% of exposed patients and in28.1% of unexposed patients (p=0.7430), without significant differences. The mostfrequent complication was isolated arterial hypotension found in 15.6% and 31.6%of exposed and unexposed respectively (p=0.2550). It was found that don′t suspendalpha blockers is associated with appearance of intraoperative complications RR=1, 46(IC95%:1,23–1,74). The rest of antihypertensive didn’t show statistical significance inthis analysis.Conclusion: intraoperative complications occurred in similar amounts in both the exposedcohort and the unexposed cohort. To take alpha blockers the day of the surgery increasesthe probability of complications. Rev.cienc.biomed. 2012;3(2):226-233RESUMEN:Introducción: la hipertensión arterial es una entidad altamente prevalente y crónica,importante factor de riesgo para muerte cardiovascular. Es imprescindible el manejofarmacológico para la prevención del da o de órganos blanco.Objetivo: estimar asociación entre la ingesta de medicamentos antihipertensivospreoperatorios y las complicaciones intraoperatorias, en pacientes sometidos a anestesiageneral.Metodología: estudio de cohorte prospectivo. La muestra la constituyen todos lospacientes hipertensos arteriales en tratamiento farmacológico regular, sometidos acirugía elect