• N R Webster, H J McFarlane, L Girdwood, A Bhaskar, and D Clark.
• Department of Anaesthesia, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Aberdeen, UK. harry.mcfarlane@nhs.net
• Anaesthesia. 2012 Feb 1;67(2):110-4.

AbstractWe speculated that asymptomatic patients undergoing routine surgery might be at higher risk of subsequent cardiac events. We studied 183,534 patients with no prior admission for heart disease, aged 50-75 years, admitted electively for one of five operations considered medium to low risk of peri-operative cardiac morbidity, between January 1997 and December 2005. Controls were generated from linked records. Within 3 years 3444 (1.9%) patients undergoing operations had subsequent myocardial infarction/acute coronary syndrome (MI/ACS) compared with 3708 (2.0%) controls (p < 0.001). Overall 8406 (4.6%) patients undergoing surgery had MI/ACS compared with 9306 (5.1%) controls (p < 0.001). Of patients undergoing surgery, 20.2% died compared with 25.7% of controls (p < 0.001). Patients undergoing certain surgical procedures did not have a higher incidence of readmission for cardiac events, but had a general survival benefit compared with other elective hospital admissions. Assessment for surgery may represent a health benefit beyond the original surgery.Anaesthesia © 2011 The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland.

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