• Enrico Passamonti and Salvatore Pirelli.
• Division of Cardiology, Istituti Ospitalieri di Cremona, Vl Concordia 1, 26100 Cremona, Italy. epassamonti@tin.it
• Expert Opin Pharmacother. 2005 Aug 1;6(9):1507-15.

AbstractCardiac adverse events are a major cause of complications in noncardiac surgery. The benefit of preventive coronary artery revascularisation in stable patients before noncardiac surgery has recently been clarified: in the short-term there is no reduction in the number of postoperative myocardial infarction, deaths or hospital length of stay. Coronary artery revascularisation should be limited to these patients who have a well-defined need for the procedure, independent of the need of noncardiac surgery. Optimising medical therapy remains the best option for reducing perioperative complications in stable patients: the addition of statin therapy in candidates for noncardiac surgery with known or strongly suspected coronary disease may be conceived. There is compelling evidence for the use of beta-blockers in reducing cardiac risk. This review presents the studies that support the beneficial effect of beta-blockers, pharmacological effects and some practical aspects in noncardiac surgery. In the management of most of these patients, the use of beta-blockers can aid in the avoidance of a preoperative stress test. The remaining problem to solve is the cost-effective identification of the small group of patients in which the protective effect of beta-blocker therapy is insufficient and a cardiac revascularisation should be considered.

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