• Elisabetta Patorno, Shirley V Wang, Sebastian Schneeweiss, Jun Liu, and Brian T Bateman.
• Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. Electronic address: epatorno@partners.org.
• Am. Heart J. 2015 Oct 1;170(4):812-820.e6.

BackgroundBased on 2 small randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from the 1990s, β-blockers were promoted to prevent perioperative cardiac events in patients undergoing noncardiac surgery. In 2008, a large RCT (POISE trial) showed an increased mortality risk associated with perioperative β-blockade, raising concerns about an extensive β-Blocker use.ObjectivesThe objective of the study is to examine patterns of β-Blocker initiation among patients undergoing noncardiac elective surgery in the US.MethodsFrom a large, nationwide US health care insurer, we identified patients ≥18 years old who underwent moderate- to high-risk noncardiac elective surgery between 2003 and 2012 and initiated a β-Blocker within 30 days before surgery. We evaluated temporal trends and assessed the impact of the POISE trial on perioperative β-Blocker initiation. We also evaluated patient characteristics and examined the effect of temporal proximity to surgery on the likelihood of β-Blocker initiation.ResultsOf 499,752 patients undergoing surgery, 9,014 (18 per 1,000 patients) initiated a β-Blocker. β-Blocker initiation increased from 12 per 1,000 patients in 2003 to 23 before POISE, after which it decreased to 14 by December 2012 (P = .0001). β-Blocker initiation remained relatively high among patients undergoing vascular surgery or with Revised Cardiac Risk Index score ≥ 2. Proximity to surgery was highly predictive of β-Blocker initiation (odds ratio 3.34, 95% CI 3.17-3.51).ConclusionsAfter a period of a rapidly increasing trend, perioperative β-Blocker initiation decreased sharply in the second half of 2008 and continued to decrease afterwards. β-Blocker initiation remained relatively high in patients with Revised Cardiac Risk Index score ≥2 and in those undergoing major vascular surgery.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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