Nutritional supplements and surgical patients

Abstract

Surgical team members should be aware of which nutritional supplements may be harmful or helpful to surgical patients. Informed education of patients may prevent bleeding problems, wound-healing problems, prolonged hematomas, and dangerous immune system depletion.

Herbs: Where's the Harm?

“…A metabolic enzyme implicated in significant drug-drug interactions was measured in 13 patients receiving St John's Wort; findings suggest a significant increase after 14 days of treatment with St John's Wort (Roby et al 2000). Petry (1997) observed a patient with excessive bleeding following excision of a skin lesion; the only explanation she could find was the fact that the patient was regularly taking vitamin E supplement, which has an anti-platelet effect. However, I would argue that in this case, as the patient was also taking garlic, which is known to increase coagulation time, this too could have caused the excessive bleeding (Rahman & Billington 2000).…”