New practice guidelines for evaluating and managing the risk of cardiovascular complications in heart disease patients during the perioperative period surrounding nonheart–related surgery have been issued.
The guidelines, released January 25, are available from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. They update the 1996 edition and include nearly 160 new studies in their scientific references.
Each year, of the approximately 8 million Americans who have or are at substantial risk for heart disease and who undergo some type of noncardiac surgery, at least 1 million have a significant cardiac complication in the perioperative period, including 50 000 who have a heart attack.
A key component of the guidelines is a stepwise approach to assessing cardiac health before surgery to guide physicians in balancing a patient's clinical condition and physical fitness against the risk of a specific operation.
The guidelines incorporate two new findings that lead . . . [Full Text of this Article]
