Making heart surgery safer
What is the best way to prevent bleeding during heart surgery? A clinical trial led by Dr. Dean Fergusson and Dr. Paul Hébert recently provided a surprising answer to this question. In the largest heart surgery trial ever conducted, they compared three routinely-used anti-bleeding drugs and found that the most popular drug, aprotinin, actually increased the rate of death. Although all three drugs had been tested in patients before, this was the first major study to compare them head-to-head. The results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and they generated a great deal of attention because aprotinin was widely considered to be the most effective drug, and it was also much more expensive. The study has led to a world-wide change in standard heart surgery practice and has been touted as an example of the importance of independent, investigator-driven clinical research. It was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.