Does Epidural Anesthesia Improve Survival After Intermediate-to-High–Risk Noncardiac Surgery?

Previous studies have shown that, compared with parenteral opioid therapy, epidural anesthesia offers important benefits after major noncardiac surgery, including better analgesia and fewer postoperative pulmonary complications. Whether it leads to a higher survival rate has been the subject of debate because of conflicting evidence, mostly drawn from studies that had methodological or statistical power limitations.

Using administrative healthcare databases in a large retrospective population-based cohort study, researchers in Toronto analyzed 30-day mortality rates in patients (age, ≥40) who had undergone intermediate-to-high–risk noncardiac surgery. The original study population included 259,037 patients; 56,556 (22%) received perioperativ…