Could potassium be used to prevent abnormal heart rhythms developing after surgery?

The TIGHT-K STUDY. Arrhythmias on the cardiac intensive care unit - does maintenance of high-normal serum potassium levels matter?

Dr Benjamin O’Brien and his team at Queen Mary, University of London are finding out if giving people potassium after heart surgery could prevent an abnormal heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation (AF) from developing. Many doctors believe giving patients potassium after surgery helps prevent AF. But there is no evidence that this treatment works – plus it is expensive, and may cause other uncomfortable side effects, such as vomiting. Dr O’Brien wants get much stronger evidence about whether potassium treatments can prevent AF after heart surgery. To do this, he’ll need to carry out a large study involving 1,600 patients, where half of the patients receive potassium, while the other half will only receive potassium treatments if their potassium levels drop below normal. But first, he needs to find out if a study like this can be completed properly. In this project, he’ll carry out a much smaller ‘pilot’ study with 160 patients and will also study how often AF and other abnormal heart rhythms develop. If the pilot study is successful, it will pave the way for a larger study to confirm whether potassium treatments can help prevent abnormal heart rhythms from developing after surgery.