What are the effects of preoperative statin therapy on adverse postoperative outcomes in patients undergoing cardiac surgery?
A meta-analysis of over 30,000 patients (Liakopoulos et al., 2008) found that preoperative statin therapy was associated with a reduced incidence of perioperative mortality (Pan et al., 2004), thrombocytosis (Christenson, 1999) and thrombotic complications (Knatterud et al., 2000) after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. Furthermore, a randomized trial (Mannacio et al., 2008) reported that rosuvastatin pretreatment was associated with reduced myocardial damage after coronary surgery. Additionally, Pascual et al. (2006) found that preoperative statin therapy was associated with reduced risk of early complications of coronary artery surgery. Finally, Cannon et al. (2004, 2006) conducted meta-analyses of cardiovascular outcomes trials comparing intensive versus moderate statin therapy, which supported the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III Guidelines (Grundy et al., 2004). 