This study from the American Journal of Cardiology should be of interest to hospitalists, who are increasingly called on to help co-manage surgical patients. Interruption of statin use was associated with increased early postoperative cardiac events. A potential weakness of the study was the fact that those patents undergoing higher risk surgeries such as abdominal aortic procedures were the very patients likely to have longer interruptions in statin therapy due to being NPO for longer periods. The authors state they adjusted for that variable.
They suggest that administration of an extended release statin before surgery may help bridge the gap. Extended release statin use seemed to confer benefit in the study. Fluvastatin (Lescol XL) is the only extended release statin available.
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