Risk factors of bradycardia in 50 cases of gastric surgery under general anesthesia

Today Anesthesiologists occasionally face with bradycardia during gastric surgery and recognized this phenomenon as a vagal reflex. The objective of this study is finding of anesthesia risk factors for bradycardia and prevention of its hazardous complications during gastric surgeries. In this retrospective study، fifty patients undergoing laparatomy and gastric surgery in Sina hospital between September 2009 to September 2013. They had been anesthetized with propofol or thiopental and their maintenance was kept by isoflurane or propofol were enrolled. The age، gender، underlying diseases، drug history، chemotherapy، kind of surgery، heart rate variability، onset time of bradycardia and its complication during a period of four years was noted. Of Fifty patients، 31 males and 19 females was enrolled in this study. The mean age of patients was 48±8. 3 yr; all patients had laparatomy under general anesthesia. The kind of surgery were mainly gasterectomy and gastrojejunostomy. The mean onset of episode bradycardia was 24. 5±3. 5 min after initiation of surgery incision، and most of the bradycardia was mild to moderate (47 patients) that with injection of atropine it resolved. There was no relationships between anesthetic drugs and anesthetic maintenance، age، gender، and incidence of bradycardia event during the surgery. The risk factors of bradycardia were، diabetes mellitus in seven patients، use of beta blockers in 17 patients in perioperative period and gastric cancer and chemotherapy (neoadjuant therapy) in three patients that lead to asystole، they were not response to standard treatment during surgery and lead to death. The history of gastric cancer and previous chemotherapy might be the only common factors that cause to bradycardia and irresponsible asystole during gastric surgery in these patients. It seems that only close monitoring and vigilant anesthesiologist require for treatment and prevention from adverse effect of such a sever bradycardia event.