Patients who are taking beta-blockers before and at the time of undergoing non-cardiac surgery appears to have the highest risk of heart attack and death within a month of their surgery, a new research reveals.

“Prevention of these perioperative [around the time of surgery] cardiac complications continues to be the goal of intense research and investigations,” quote the author

Researchers observed 238 patients received beta-blockers before or at the time of surgery and 408 patients who underwent the same surgery without taking beta-blockers at the same center. The researchers found that after one month of surgery beta-blocker group had increased rate of heart attack (2.94% vs.0.74%) and death (2.52% vs. 0.25%) as compare to the another group.

The patients in the beta-blocker group who died had higher heart rates before surgery than those who did not. This drug may be protective when the patient has a low heart rate before surgery. “Further investigations in this field with standardizing of beta-blockade regimen and with monitoring of heart rate in populations at various levels of cardiac risk should be pursued,” The author suggests.