Comparing the Effect of Perioperative Amiodarone and Magnesium Sulphate Combination with Magnesium Sulphate for Prevention of Cardiac Dysrhythmias in Open Heart Surgeries: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Abstract

Objective: To compare the effectiveness of combining Magnesium Sulphate with Amiodarone vs Magnesium Sulphate to
prevent cardiac arrhythmias in Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) patients.

Study Design: Quasi-Experimental Study.

Place and Duration of Study: Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology/National Institute of Heart Diseases Rawalpindi Pakistan, from Jul 2022 to Mar 2023.

Methodology: Two hundred and sixty-two (n=262) Coronary Artery Bypass Graft patients, eligible for the study, were
enrolled through consecutive sampling and divided into group A - experiment group (3 mg/kg amiodarone+30 mg/kg
magnesium sulphate was given, n1=131) and group B- control group (30 mg/kg magnesium sulphate was given, n2=131) by non-random allocation lottery method at the removal of the aortic cross-clamp. The statistical package for social science, SPSS version 26:00 was used to analyse the data. Mean±SD was calculated for continuous variables whereas for categorical
variables, percentages and frequencies were calculated. Chi-square test was utilized to find the association and student t-test was applied to find the mean difference between the study groups.

Results: Study participants consisted of 194(74.1%) males and 68(26.0%) females. The patients' mean age was 57.29±9.88 years and 58.30±10.69 years respectively, in group-A and group-B. The frequency of pre and post-operative cardiac dysrhythmias was considerably different in both groups. In group-A, 22(16.7%) patients developed dysrhythmias, while in control group,dysrhythmias occurred in 49 (37.4%) patients (p-value <0.001).

Conclusion: Combined prophylactic therapy with amiodarone and magnesium sulphate significantly reduced the per and
post-operative dysrhythmias in CABG surgeries.