Statins can cut risk of death from a heart bypass by 67%

PATIENTS who have heart bypass surgery are much more likely to survive if they are taking statins, research has shown.

The study of thousands of Britons revealed that taking the cholesterol-busting drugs cuts the risk of dying during or soon after the operation by as much as two-thirds.

And the protection seems to last. Patients on statins were still more likely to survive than those not taking the drugs six months on.

The scientists said that GPs should consider putting bypass patients on statins ahead of their surgery if they are not taking them already. Researcher Robert Sanders, of the University of Wisconsin in the US, added that the survival boost is likely to be due to statins’ ability to reduce inflammation, rather than the lowering of cholesterol that they are best known for.

A heart bypass involves using a blood vessel from the chest, leg or arm to divert blood around blocked or narrow narrowed arteries, improving the supply of blood and oxygen to the heart. Some 20,000 of the operations are carried out each year in England alone.

While heart surgery is much safer than in the past, between 0.5 per cent and 3 per cent of patients die during the operation or in the f ollowing 30 days, with heart attacks and heart failure the most common causes.

The researchers analysed anonymous medical data from more than 16,000 Britons aged over 40 who have had a heart bypass in the past 40 years. Information included other illnesses the patients had, as well as the drugs they were taking.

Only statins, which are usually prescribed to lower cholesterol in those at risk of heart attacks and strokes, showed any benefit.

Patients who were taking the medication were 67 per cent less likely to die in the first 30 days after the operation, the European Society of Anaesthesiology’s Euro-anaesthesia conference in Berlin heard.

Simvastatin, the most commonly prescribed statin in the UK, showed the clearest benefit, although it is likely that other statins also help.

Other drugs taken by the patients such as ACE inhibitors, which are used to treat high blood pressure, neither improved nor cut the odds of survival.

Some 85 per cent of those studied were taking statins. However, they would have been given the drugs due to general concerns about their heart health or cholesterol levels, rather than being prescribed them specifically because they were due to have bypass surgery.

But Dr Sanders, who carried out the analysis with researchers from around the UK, said that ideally GPs would now think about giving statins to all bypass patients ahead of their operation, as long as they don’t experience side-effects.

The analysis did not provide information on how long someone needs to be on statins before the procedure to be protected.

But it is hoped future research will show that even a short course can help, meaning that those who suffer side-effects from the drugs could still benefit.

‘Reduce inflammation’