Association of Perioperative Myocardial Ischemia with Cardiac Morbidity and Mortality in Men Undergoing Noncardiac Surgery

OF the 25 million patients who undergo noncardiac surgery in the United States each year, approximately 3 million have or are at risk of having coronary artery disease. 1 Despite recent advances in the diagnosis and therapy of coronary artery disease, approximately 50,000 of these patients have a perioperative myocardial infarction, and more than half the 40,000 deaths after surgery are caused by cardiac events. 1 , 2 For perioperative myocardial infarction alone, health care costs exceed $500 million per year. 3 Determining the risk factors for adverse postoperative cardiac outcomes would allow us to develop preventive strategies and allocate health care resources efficiently. Previous . . .