Towards the quantification of perioperative cardiovascular risk in the African context: A sub-analysis of the South African Surgical Outcomes Study and the African Surgical Outcomes Study

Background The burden of cardiovascular disease in patients requiring non-cardiac surgery in Africa is not known. These patients are at increased risk for postoperative cardiovascular complications.Objectives In this sub-study, to use data on comorbidities and surgical outcomes from two large observational studies, the South African Surgical Outcomes Study (SASOS) and the African Surgical Outcomes Study (ASOS), to investigate the prevalence of cardiovascular disease in elective surgical patients and the risk of postoperative cardiovascular complications in this population.Methods SASOS and ASOS were both prospective, observational cohort studies that collected data over 1 week in each participating centre. The primary outcome was in-hospital postoperative complications, which included prespecified and defined cardiovascular complications. We defined the cardiovascular disease burden of patients aged ≥45 years presenting for surgery (main objective), determined the relative risk of developing postoperative cardiovascular complications (secondary objective) and assessed the utility of the Revised Cardiac Risk Index (RCRI) for preoperative cardiovascular risk stratification of elective, non-cardiac surgical patients in Africa (third objective).Results The primary outcome analysis of 3 045 patients showed that patients with major cardiac complications were significantly older, with a higher prevalence of hypertension, coronary artery disease or congestive cardiac failure, and had undergone major surgery. In-hospital mortality for the cohort was 1.2%.Conclusions The substantial burden of cardiovascular disease in patients presenting for non-cardiac surgery in Africa is shown in the principal findings of this study. The RCRI has moderate discrimination for major cardiac complications and major adverse cardiac events in African patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery.