Association Between Long- Versus Short-Acting Angiotensin II Receptor Antagonists and Hypotension During Anesthesia...

The withdrawal or continuation of angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) before surgery continues to be debated. We hypothesized that this is because ARBs with different half-lives have not been studied individually. This retrospective study aimed to clarify whether the degree of hypotension during anesthesia induction differs among ARBs with different half-lives.

We included patients who received general anesthesia with regular oral administration of telmisartan (group T) or valsartan (group V), which have half-lives of approximately 24 and 6 hours, respectively. The frequency of hypotension and vasopressor frequency and dose during anesthesia induction were compared between the two groups. At our hospital, ARBs were withdrawn on the day of surgery in all patients.

Groups T and V included 190 and 132 patients, respectively. Patient backgrounds in group V were significantly more strongly associated with the use of calcium channel blockers. No significant differences were observed in the use of other concomitant antihypertensive medications, cardiovascular complications, or renal function. The time during which the mean arterial blood pressure was < 60 mmHg during anesthesia induction was significantly greater in group T than in group V (11 min vs. 7 min, P=0.030). The proportion of patients who used vasopressors was significantly higher in group T than that in group V (74.2% vs. 56.0%, P < 0.001).

Patients taking telmisartan showed more hypotensive during the induction of general anesthesia than those taking valsartan, even after withdrawal on the day of surgery.