Effect of Atenolol on Mortality and Cardiovascular Morbidity after Noncardiac Surgery

Mortality and morbidity due to cardiovascular disease are prevalent and costly for the 30 million patients who undergo noncardiac surgery annually in the United States, affecting more than 1 million of them. 1 , 2 In the subgroup of 3 million patients who require noncardiac surgery who have or are at risk for coronary artery disease, the most significant risk factors for mortality and cardiovascular morbidity are myocardial ischemia and nonfatal myocardial infarction during the first week after surgery; these factors increase the risk of serious cardiovascular outcomes by a factor of 2 to 20 over the two years after surgery. 3 – . . .