Vitamin D supplementation before CABG reduces atrial fibrillation risk, finds study

Turkey: High-dose vitamin D supplementation before coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery significantly reduced the occurrence of postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) in patients with vitamin D deficiency, according to a recent study in the General Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery journal.

Vitamin D is synthesized in the body in the presence of sunlight. However, there are certain foods like milk and milk products, mushrooms, eggs, fatty fish, etc, that can also provide the body with some Vitamin D.

Also Read-Vitamin D deficiency not linked to NAFLD severity in children, confirms study

The study, led by Hakan Kara, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Giresun Ada Hospital, Giresun, Turkey, aimed to investigate the preventive effects of a high-dose vitamin D administered preoperatively on the POAF occurrence in patients with insufficient or deficient serum vitamin D levels who underwent CABG surgery.

The study was a randomized controlled, blinded and parallel-arm trial conducted between January 2018 and January 2019. It included 116 patients who had vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency during the pre-operative evaluation. Patients were divided into two groups; patients who received oral vitamin D (treatment group; n = 58) and those who did not (control group; n = 58) 48 h before CABG surgery. In the treatment group, patients with vitamin D deficiency were administered 300.000 IU vitamin D orally and those with vitamin D insufficiency 150.000 IU 48 h preoperatively. Patients were followed up during the hospitalisation process with respect to POAF.

Also Read-Vitamin D supplementation benefits psoriasis patients without adverse effects

Key findings of the study include:

• Both groups showed no significant differences with regard to age, gender, body mass index, creatine level, left atrial diameter, pre-operative drug use, calcium level, ejection fraction, diabetes mellitus and hypertension.


• The ratio of POAF occurrence found in the treatment and control groups were 12.07% and 27.59%, respectively.


• Vitamin D treatment was found to reduce the risk of POAF development by 0.24 times.

"In this study with sufficient sample size, preoperative short-term high-dose vitamin D supplementation was found to be significantly preventive to the occurrence of POAF in patients with vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency who underwent CABG surgery," concluded the authors.

Source:

Effects of high-dose vitamin D supplementation on the occurrence of post-operative atrial fibrillation after coronary artery bypass grafting: randomized controlled trial

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11748-019-01209-0