United States – Smoke from wildfires might impact the safety of surgeries, as a new study reveals.
Breathing in the smoke could add to the impact of the anesthetic on operating theater patients and could potentially harm them when they woke up, researchers said in the Aug. 6 issue of the journal Anesthesiology, as reported by HealthDay.
Health Risks from Wildfire Smoke
“Wildfire smoke actually poses quite a lot of threat to health and specifically to individuals with a history of cardiac or respiratory ailments, obese patients, infants, and other sensitive groups as well,” said Dr. Krhishnamoorthy, senior researcher and chief of critical care medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, N. C.
This study comes at a time when anesthesiologists are faced with increasing global health risks, and the group needs proper preparation to contain the probable detrimental impacts of wildfire smoke exposure, as stated by Krishnamoorthy in the journal.
Scientists pointed out that there are almost 100 of them at the moment, which consume over 2 million acres in the United States.
Wildfire smoke consist of tiny particles and chemicals which, when breathed in, can travel through the bloodstream. Such organs as the heart and the lungs can be affected as a result, the researchers pointed out.
The inhaled particles cause inflammation, injure the blood vessels’ lining, and disturb the normal clotting mechanisms in small vessels, the two noted.
Impact on Surgical Outcomes
They observed that exposure to such particle pollution also raises the rates of heart attack, irregular heartbeat, heart failure, and stroke.
The researchers concluded that all these factors culminate in higher rates of complications, especially in patients who undergo surgery.
Specific Vulnerabilities
For instance, the researchers pointed out that young children with asthma symptoms are more prone to experiencing respiratory events under anesthesia where they live when there is wildfire smoke.
“We hope our paper will inform anesthesia clinicians about the potential impact of wildfire smoke on patient outcomes and the urgent need for information and action to better understand and manage these risks,” Krishnamoorthy said, as reported by HealthDay.
The new paper also urges further study into the impact of wildfire smoke on anesthesia and surgery.
Call for Further Research
For instance, with more information, researchers may be in a position to reduce surgery times depending on the level of wildfire smoke pollution as this reduces the number of patients who experience some or the other complication, the study authors pointed out .