Loading...
Perioperative use of β-blockers currently is intensely controversial; studies have yielded conflicting results about benefits and harms. Earlier studies supported liberal use of perioperative β-blockers to prevent cardiac ischemic complications in noncardiac surgery, and some authorities have advocated this approach. More recently, however, researchers have questioned the validity of such an approach (JW May 22 2008 and JW Nov 29 2006).
In a single-center retrospective cohort study at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Houston, researchers examined the effect of perioperative β-blockers in patients who had undergone noncardiac surgery. Patients were classified into high, intermediate, low, or negligible cardiac risk strata by the operating surge…