Nasreen Laiq, Riaz Anwar Khan, Abdul Mailk, Hamid Ahmad.
Intravenous magnesium prevents atrial fibrillation after valvular heart surgery.
J Med Sci Jan ;21(2):77-80.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of prophylactic magnesium sulfate in the prophylaxis of atrial fibrillation. Materials and Methods: It was a prospective randomized placebo-controlled trial in 100 consecutive patients who were scheduled to undergo elective cardiac valvular surgery and had provided informed written consent, were studied from January 2007 to January 2009 at Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia Department of Post Graduate Medical Institute,Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar. Operations and management of atrial fibrillations were performed by the same surgical team. Results: In the treatment group (n = 50) 32 (64%) of the patients were women and 18 (36%) were men, the average age was 36 ± 12.9 years (range 20-60 years). The control group consisted of 20 (40%) men and 30 (60%) women, mean age 40 ± 11.35 SD years, age (range 20-60 years). Data collected were the number of patients, preoperative patient characteristics, magnesium sulphate level and length of stay (LOS) in ICU and in the hospital. LOS in ICU as well as in the ward were significantly long in our control group compared to treatment group i-e 20% in magnesium group and 40% in control group. The rest of data were significantly not different in both of our studied groups. Blood magnesium sulfate levels in both groups were not significantly different in Preoperative, perioperative, and postoperative patients. Frequency of atrial fibrillation (AF) in the treatment group was significantly lower (P = 0.05) compare to control group. No mortality was recorded in our studied groups. Conclusion: Magnesium provides good pre,intra and postoperative control of arrythmias, without any significant adverse effects,therefore it should be encouraged in open heart surgeries.

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