Medication helps with heart irregularities after cardiac surgery

If you know people whose future may include heart surgery (bypass or valve), you can now tell them that even though one of the aftereffects common with heart surgery is frequent, sudden bouts of out-of-control heartbeating, scientists think they’ve found a medicine that will control these events pretty well. If you’ve ever had cardiac surgery, you’ll undoubtedly agree that taking a medication (even thought it’s not yet been proven 100% safe), sounds a lot more appealing than going in for another surgery to fix the problem the first operation created. The PAPABEAR (I love it) trial showed that amiodarone given both before and after surgery significantly reduced tachyarrythmias.

If you’re staring at a potential cardiac surgery yourself, it may make sense to ask your cardiologist if he/she knows about this.