Patients with positive preoperative stress tests undergoing vascular surgery

To examine the perioperative cardiac morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing major vascular surgery with beta-blockade after a positive stress test or cardiac catheterization.

Retrospective review of a quality assurance database.

A university teaching hospital.

A consecutive series of 31 patients undergoing peripheral vascular or aortic surgery after a positive stress test or catheterization between November 2001 and September 2003.

None.

All 31 patients had a preoperative positive stress test and/or cardiac catheterization, with 12 having multiple areas at risk for myocardial ischemia. None had an intervening coronary revascularization. Twenty-seven had at least one of the intermediate clinical predictors as defined by the American College of Cardiology and 7 had a left ventricular ejection fraction < 40%. Twenty-three patients had been on a beta-blocker and continued on it, while the remainder started on it de novo perioperatively. None of the patients suffered from myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, or cardiac death perioperatively.

This case series reports on the authors' experience with patients undergoing high-risk vascular surgery after a positive stress test or catheterization, but without an intervening coronary intervention. All patients received perioperative beta-blockade and had a very low adverse cardiac event rate. With reduction of adverse events by beta-blockade, the likelihood of a positive event may be reduced and the utility of the test in risk stratification may be questioned.