Alcoholism and Surgery - The Importance of Talking To Your Surgeon Openly and Honestly

The abuse of alcohol is a much more common problem than most people realize, including surgeons. It is common for patients to forget or avoid mentioning their alcohol intake. There are many reasons for this, including denial, embarassment, not realizing their alcohol intake is high enough to be considered alcoholism, or not thinking it is important information.

A VERY Real Problem:

Imagine a patient reporting to the hospital for a surgery that requires several days in the hospital recovering, such as heart bypass surgery. She stopped drinking and eating the night before the surgery to prepare for the procedure, just as the surgeon instructed. She has the surgery and in the late afternoon she begins to wake slowly from anethesia. She should be feeling better, but instead she is irritable. Even worse, the monitor is starting to show that she is having unusual heart rhythms, even though the heart surgery went perfectly. The patient starts to behave strangely, thrashing around in the bed, swatting at something that isn't there, and pain medication doesn't seem to work. The breathing tube stays in, because the patient needs to be heavily sedated to prevent injury to the surgical site. Within minutes, even though she is sedated, the patient begins to have seizures, and it is at this point that the staff realizes what is happening. The seizures are being caused by alcohol withdrawal. The patient has such severe seizures that brain damage occurs before the staff can give enough medication to stop them. The patient stays in the ICU for two weeks before being transferred to a rehabilitation facility to learn to walk and talk again.

Does this sound like a story made up to scare alcoholics? It isn't. She is a real person and she is not unique. Even worse? She denied alcohol use on her pre-operative questionaire, which delayed the correct diagnosis of withdrawal.

The worst part of the situation? If she had been honest about her alcohol intake it would have only taken regular doses of a prescription medication to prevent her seizures and other symptoms until the withdrawal was over.

The moral of the story: Talk to your surgeon. Be honest. It could save your life.

Ten Things to Tell Your Surgeon

Symptoms of Alcohol Withdrawal