Clinical outcome of patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery in the two months following coronary stenting.

<bold>Objectives: </bold>We sought to determine the frequency and timing of complications at our institution when surgery was performed within two months of coronary stent placement.<bold>Background: </bold>The optimal delay following coronary stent placement prior to non-cardiac surgery is unknown.<bold>Methods: </bold>We analyzed the Mayo Clinic Percutaneous Coronary Intervention and Surgical databases between 1990 and 2000 and identified 207 patients who underwent surgery in the two months following successful coronary stent placement.<bold>Results: </bold>Eight patients (4.0%) died or suffered a myocardial infarction or stent thrombosis. All 8 patients were among the 168 patients (4.8%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.1 to 9.2) undergoing surgery six weeks after stent placement; the frequency of these events ranged from 3.8% to 7.1% per week during each of the six weeks. No events occurred in the 39 patients undergoing surgery seven to nine weeks after stent placement (0%, 95% CI 0.0 to 9.0).<bold>Conclusions: </bold>These data suggest that, whenever possible, non-cardiac surgery should be delayed six weeks after stent placement, by which time stents are generally endothelialized, and a course of antiplatelet therapy to prevent stent thrombosis has been completed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]