Guidelines for Perioperative Cardiovascular Evaluation for Patients Considering Noncardiac Surgery

The American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA) have issued a new guideline on the perioperative cardiovascular evaluation for patients considering noncardiac surgery. The previous version of this guideline (published in 2002) was notable for a rather complex algorithm. The algorithm in this new version is somewhat simpler; the main points for clinically stable patients are essentially as follows:

• Patients scheduled for low-risk noncardiac surgery should proceed to surgery.

• Patients with good functional capacity should proceed to surgery.

• Patients with poor or unknown functional capacity who are scheduled for non-low-risk surgery should be stratified according to the Revised Cardiac Risk Index (Journal Watch Sep 1…