Noncardiac surgery and bleeding after percutaneous coronary intervention

The decision on whether to implant a drug-eluting or bare-metal stent during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) depends in part on the perceived likelihood of the patient developing late stent thrombosis. Noncardiac surgery and bleeding are associated with discontinuation of dual antiplatelet therapy and with increased stent thrombosis. We assessed the incidence of and predictors for subsequent noncardiac surgery and bleeding episodes in patients who had undergone PCI.

Hospital discharge coding data were used to identify all adult patients undergoing public hospital PCI in New Zealand from 1996 to 2001. Hospital admissions during the ensuing 5 years were analyzed for noncardiac surgery and bleeding episodes. Eleven thousand one hundred fifty-one patients (age, 62+/-11 years; 30% women) underwent PCI, mainly for an acute coronary syndrome (73%). During the 5-year follow-up, 26% of the population underwent at least 1 noncardiac surgical procedure (23% orthopedic, 20% abdominal, 12% urologic, 10% vascular, 35% others) and 8.6% had at least 1 bleeding episode either requiring or occurring during hospitalization. Of those, half were gastrointestinal, and one quarter of bleeding events required blood transfusion. The main clinical predictors of noncardiac surgery were advanced age, previous noncardiac surgery, osteoarthritis, and peripheral vascular disease. A previous bleeding admission and age were the strongest predictors of subsequent bleeding.

Noncardiac surgery is required frequently after PCI, whereas bleeding is less common. Before implanting a drug-eluting or bare-metal stent, individual patient risk stratification by the interventional cardiologist should include assessment of whether there is an increased likelihood of needing noncardiac surgery or developing bleeding.