I’m afraid of shots as it is, but if I had a serious drinking problem, was opting for some sort of surgery, and wanted to bypass the agony of withdrawal, I might actually go for this: an injection of booze prior to procedure.

Seriously, researchers reporting in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons say “intravenous (alcohol), when administered in a controlled and monitored fashion, is an effective and safe way to prevent alcohol withdrawal syndrome.”

They also said they found 16% or so of patients undergoing non-emergency surgery were observed to have alcohol withdrawal symptoms. It’s dangerous because it can complicate surgery or delay recovery.

A doc friend of mine once told me when you look in the microscope, the cells of alcoholics going through withdrawal are all jittery-like. And when he opens someone up who’s been drinking, the smell is something else. He says the number of his elective surgery cases who show up with alcohol in their system is astounding.

Here’s to forward thinking researchers who don’t mind taking a little heat. It makes absolute sense to me.

Story is here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 30th, 2006 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Medications and research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.