Increasing popularity of cannabis complicates patient care
UCI Health expert cites unique risks in the surgical setting
February 16, 2024
IN THE NEWS: Cannabis is more accessible and popular than ever.
As more states legalize its use, UCI Health anesthesiologist and pain management expert Dr. Shalini Shah notes that it carries risks for patients in the perioperative setting. She spoke to ACP Hospitalist about the problem.
"The risk of a heart attack after someone uses cannabis is five times higher if they have smoked it in the last hour prior to a stressor such as surgery."
Certain conditions, such as underlying heart disease, will increase that perioperative risk even further, Shah added.
"This is why it's so important to ask patients if they have used cannabis."
Shah is a board-certified and fellowship-trained physician who specializes in the management and treatment of adult and pediatric pain. She is also a professor and vice chair of Pain Management in the Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Care at the UCI School of Medicine
Her expertise is in chronic pain disorders in children, specifically in oncologic pain, head and neck pain, abdominal pain, scoliosis and spasticity disorders. Shah is also a coauthor of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia Pain Medicine's consensus guidelines on the management of perioperative patients on cannabis and cannabinoids.
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