Optimal perioperative medication utilization in patients having arterial intervention

Perioperative medical management of patients undergoing carotid, aortic, or peripheral arterial procedures, both open and endovascular, should be optimized in all cases to achieve excellent outcomes. This particular patient population is often plagued with multiple comorbidities, primarily of the cardiovascular system, but frequently involving other systems. For this reason, management of these comorbidities is complex and should be carefully addressed in every patient throughout the surgical encounter, in many cases through a multidisciplinary approach. Most recently, the perioperative use of statins, antiplatelet agents, and β-blockers have been scrutinized in the literature specifically targeting peripheral vascular disease patients, and results have sometimes been conflicting. The objective of this review is to summarize current available evidence regarding optimal perioperative medical management of patients undergoing arterial vascular surgical procedures, open and endovascular.