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Effect of Pot Smoking on Major Surgical Outcomes Insignificant
By MICHAEL VLESSIDES
As more North Americans are partaking of legal cannabis, exposure to the substance does not seem to affect major surgical outcomes, according to the results of a large cohort study.
Canadian researchers have concluded that routine cannabis use does not affect a composite outcome of respiratory/cardiac arrest, ICU admission, stroke, myocardial infarction and mortality during hospital stays.
“Cannabis contains cannabinoids, which can interact with neurotransmitters, thereby creating potential drug interactions in the perioperative period,” said Betty Huiyu Zhang, MD, a resident at the University of Ottawa, in Ontario. “Preclinical studies indicate the potential for such cardiovascular complications as arrhythmias and blood pressure changes.
“Smoking cannabis can also cause airway hypersensitivity, and smaller retrospective studies have suggested that cannabis may be associated with increased propofol requirements for induction and sedation,” Dr. Zhang added.
Other research has found a potential link between cannabis use and perioperative analgesic difficulties, and mixed results with respect to postoperative pain control.
Therefore, Dr. Zhang and her colleagues evaluated the effect of routine cannabis use on perioperative outcomes in a large patient cohort. The researchers captured data from 1,818 surgical patients presenting to the institution between January 2018 and March 2019. Cannabis users were identified by self-disclosure at their preoperative visit.
Multiple logistic regression with propensity score matching was used to adjust for a number of potentially confounding baseline variables, including age, sex, body mass index, smoking status, other recreational drug use, surgical setting (inpatient vs. ambulatory), type of surgery and type of anesthesia.
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—Betty Huiyu Zhang, MD
