Search

Introduction: Patients undergoing vascular procedures are prone to developing postoperative complications affecting their short‑term mortality. Prospective reports describing the incidence of long‑term complications after vascular surgery are lacking., Objectives: We aimed to describe the incidence of complications 1 year after vascular surgery and to evaluate an association between myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery (MINS) and 1‑year mortality., Patients and Methods: This is a substudy of a large prospective cohort study Vascular Events in Noncardiac Surgery Patients Cohort Evaluation (VISION). Recruitment took place in 28 centers across 14 countries from August 2007 to November 2013. We enrolled patients aged 45 years or older undergoing vascular surgery, receiving general or regional anesthesia, and hospitalized for at least 1 night postoperatively. Plasma cardiac troponin T concentration was measured before the surgery and on the first, second, and third postoperative day. The patients or their relatives were contacted 1 year after the procedure to assess the incidence of major postoperative complications., Results: We enrolled 2641 patients who underwent vascular surgery, 2534 (95.9%) of whom completed 1‑year follow‑up. Their mean (SD) age was 68.2 (9.8) years, and the cohort was predominantly male (77.5%). The most frequent 1‑year complications were myocardial infarction (224/2534, 8.8%), amputation (187/2534, 7.4%), and congestive heart failure (67/2534, 2.6%). The 1‑year mortality rate was 8.8% (223/2534). MINS occurred in 633 patients (24%) and was associated with an increased 1‑year mortality (hazard ratio, 2.82; 95% CI, 2.14-3.72; P <0.001)., Conclusions: The incidence of major postoperative complications after vascular surgery is high. The occurrence of MINS is associated with a nearly 3‑fold increase in 1‑year mortality.

Background: In the POISE‐2 (PeriOperative ISchemic Evaluation 2) trial, perioperative aspirin did not reduce cardiovascular events, but increased major bleeding. There remains uncertainty regarding the effect of perioperative aspirin in patients undergoing vascular surgery. The aim of this substudy was to determine whether there is a subgroup effect of initiating or continuing aspirin in patients undergoing vascular surgery. Methods: POISE‐2 was a blinded, randomized trial of patients having non‐cardiac surgery. Patients were assigned to perioperative aspirin or placebo. The primary outcome was a composite of death or myocardial infarction at 30 days. Secondary outcomes included: vascular occlusive complications (a composite of amputation and peripheral arterial thrombosis) and major or life‐threatening bleeding. Results: Of 10 010 patients in POISE‐2, 603 underwent vascular surgery, 319 in the continuation and 284 in the initiation stratum. Some 272 patients had vascular surgery for occlusive disease and 265 had aneurysm surgery. The primary outcome occurred in 13·7 per cent of patients having aneurysm repair allocated to aspirin and 9·0 per cent who had placebo (hazard ratio (HR) 1·48, 95 per cent c.i. 0·71 to 3·09). Among patients who had surgery for occlusive vascular disease, 15·8 per cent allocated to aspirin and 13·6 per cent on placebo had the primary outcome (HR 1·16, 0·62 to 2·17). There was no interaction with the primary outcome for type of surgery (P = 0·294) or aspirin stratum (P = 0·623). There was no interaction for vascular occlusive complications (P = 0·413) or bleeding (P = 0·900) for vascular compared with non‐vascular surgery. Conclusion: This study suggests that the overall POISE‐2 results apply to vascular surgery. Perioperative withdrawal of chronic aspirin therapy did not increase cardiovascular or vascular occlusive complications. Registration number: NCT01082874 (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov). No evidence to start or stop aspirin [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]