Nutraceuticals

Risk

• Approx 64% of pts have taken or are taking a nutraceutical agent.

• Incidence in USA: More than 50% take dietary supplements; a study of over 1000 outpatients found that approx 33% were using herbals at the time of surgery or pain procedures.

• 31% use herbal drugs in combination with prescriptions.

• 48% use them with OTC drugs.

• Up to 70% of pts do not inform the physician about their use of these products at the time of routine anesthetic preop assessment. Furthermore, pharmacists’ knowledge of nutraceuticals lags behind the rapidly increasing numbers of these products and increasing pt consumption.

• Some of these agents have the potential to cause serious drug interactions, including bleeding, prolonged sedation, and hemodynamic instability periop.