Safer Surgery with Magnesium

Everything in surgery, emergency room medicine and intensive care is facilitated with magnesium. Complications such as arrhythmias, kidney failure, stroke and infections may occur after major surgery. Everyone scheduled for surgery needs to increase their stores of magnesium. In the pre-and postoperative phases magnesium can help alleviate pain, decrease blood pressure, alleviate certain heart arrhythmias; it works to prevent blood clotting, relieves depression so common after bypass surgery, and improves energy and cognitive abilities.

Magnesium is the principle substance that modulates cellular events involved in inflammation. Magnesium deficiencies feed the fires of inflammation and pain. Increases in extracellular magnesium concentration cause a decrease in the inflammatory response while reduction in the extracellular magnesium results in inflammation. Inflammation causes endothelial dysfunction and activated endothelium facilitates adhesion and migration of cancer cells. Magnesium literally puts the chill on inflammation especially when used transdermally.

Dr. Sarah Mayhill says, “Magnesium has both a thrombolytic (able to dissolve thrombosis) effect, but also protects against adverse effects of stunning. From the mid 1980s there has been increasing evidence that the use of intravenous magnesium, given as early as possible (and before reperfusion) has a major beneficial effect on the outcome of this life threatening situation. Positive studies have shown between a 50% and 82.5% improved survival rate after doses of intravenous magnesium given by drips in the dosage range of 32 – 66 mmol in the first 24 hours.”

The use of preventative magnesium showed a reduction in the rate of atrial fibrillation, a decrease in the length of hospital stay and cost of hospital treatment and a possible decrease in the rate of stroke. The significance of magnesium cannot be overestimated in medicine and health. Magnesium holds the potential to save millions of lives through cardiac arrest and we find that cancer rates would be much lower if the general population were not so deficient in magnesium.

Dr. Minato at the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, in Japan, strongly recommends the correction of hypomagnesemia during and after off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OPCAB) for the prevention of perioperative coronary artery spasm and his team have said that they won’t perform this surgery without its use any longer.[1]

[1] Perioperative coronary artery spasm in off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting and its possible relation with perioperative hypomagnesemia. Ann Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2006 Feb;12(1):32-6.