Wine after urological surgery: no demonstrated mental health benefit at 30 days

Red wine compared with abstinence

This single-center trial randomly assigned regular wine drinkers scheduled for elective urological surgery to two groups: abstinence or standardized red wine consumption from the first through the thirtieth day after surgery.

The primary outcome was the between-group difference in the change in the SF-36 questionnaire’s Mental Health Index from baseline to day 30. The researchers also tracked complications, readmissions, length of hospital stay, and several blood parameters and markers of oxidative stress.

A small, uncertain difference in the primary outcome

The mental health score decreased by an average of 0.6 points in the abstinence group and increased by 0.7 points in the wine group. The between-group difference was therefore 1.3 points, with a 95% confidence interval ranging from −1.9 to 4.6 points. This result does not demonstrate an improvement with wine.

Complications affected 16.1% of participants in the abstinence group, compared with 9.8% in the wine group. Readmissions at 30 days were 8.1% and 0%, respectively. These differences were not statistically significant, so the percentages alone do not establish a protective effect.

Length of hospital stay did not differ significantly. The abstract also reports no clinically relevant differences in blood parameters or markers of oxidative stress.

Neither a reason to start nor proof of safety

The crucial distinction is this: not detecting more complications does not prove that the two options are equally safe. The sample size is not stated in the supplied abstract, which notably prevents an assessment of the trial’s ability to detect uncommon events.

These findings concern regular drinkers, mainly older men, in a specific surgical setting over 30 days. They cannot be directly generalized to non-drinkers, other operations, or the long-term consequences of alcohol. The authors state that their findings support neither starting nor promoting alcohol consumption.

What we can take away

In this trial, red wine after urological surgery showed no mental health benefit at 30 days. The absence of a significant difference in complications is not proof of safety.