RT Book, Section
A1 Ogden, L. Lazarre
A1 Heath, Elise
A1 Wallace, Gregory
A2 Johnson, Ken B.
SR Print(0)
ID 1103963993
T1 Anesthetic Drug Interactions with Herbal Remedies
T2 Clinical Pharmacology for Anesthesiology
YR 2015
FD 2015
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9780071736169
LK accessanesthesiology.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1103963993
RD 2024/04/23
AB As  the  use  of  herbal  supplements  becomes  more  widespread,  it  is  vitally  important  that  the  anesthetist  has  a  detailed  understanding  of  potential  interactions  with  anesthetic  medications  and  full  knowledge  of  the  perturbations  these  herbal  remedies  can  have  on  patient  physiology  in  a  perioperative  setting.  The  first  question  to  ask  after  reviewing  conventional  medications  is:  “Do  you  take  any  herbal  supplements/medications  that  are  not  documented  in  your  chart?  It  may  have  an  impact  on  your  surgery  and/or  anesthetic.”  The  caveat  is  that  patients  do  not  always  know  to  report  supplements  as  medications.  They  may  not  understand  the  scope  of  properties  these  supplements  have  when  not  discontinued  before  surgery,  especially  when  they  will  be  exposed  to  a  number  of  different  medications  during  the  perioperative  and  postsurgical  course.  A  common  recommendation  is  to  refrain  from  taking  herbal  remedies  for  at  least  2  weeks  prior  to  surgery.  This  recommendation  is  not  standard  or  widespread,  and  it  is  impossible  to  enforce  due  to  noncompliance  or  emergency  surgical  situations.  A  pertinent,  concise  description  is  valuable  to  enhance  understanding  of  these  herbal  remedies  and  avoid  catastrophic  outcomes  due  to  inadequate  consideration  of  these  drugs  effects.  What  follows  is  a  review  of  few  of  the  more  commonly  prescribed  supplements  that  influence  anesthetic  drug  action.  A  summary  of  these  herbal  remedies  is  presented  in  Table  13–1.