Best not to stop aspirin before surgery

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A new study shows that it may be better not to stop aspirin before surgery.
It is common practice to advise those on aspirin to discontinue their medication before having an operation. The fear is that the anticoagulant effect of aspirin might promote excessive bleeding after surgery.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have set out to discover if this is really so. They collected data from 1,636 patients having first time heart bypass surgery. They compared those who did take aspirin five days before surgery with those who did not. The in-hospital mortality for the aspirin group was 1.7 per cent compared to 4.4 per cent for those not on aspirin. Clearly the known benefit of aspirin for those with heart problems must outweigh the risk of bleeding. So patients with heart disease should be taking aspirin anyway and should not stop it before a bypass operation.

Source
Circulation 29th August 2005