Risk of Surgery Following Recent Myocardial Infarction

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to assess the impact of recent myocardial infarction (MI) on outcomes after subsequent surgery in the contemporary clinical setting. BACKGROUND: Prior work shows that a history of a recent MI is a risk factor for complications following noncardiac surgery. However, this data does not reflect current advances in clinical management. METHODS: Using the California Patient Discharge Database, we retrospectively analyzed patients undergoing hip surgery, cholecystectomy, colectomy, elective abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, and lower extremity amputation from 1999 to 2004 (n = 563,842). Postoperative 30-day MI rate, 30-day mortality, and 1-year mortality were compared for patients with and without a recent MI using univariate analyses and multivariate logistic regression. Relative risks (RR) with 95% confidence intervals were estimated using bootstrapping with 1000 repetitions. RESULTS: Postoperative MI rate for the recent MI cohort decreased substantially as the length of time from MI to operation increased (0-30 days = 32.8%, 31-60 days = 18.7%, 61-90 days = 8.4%, and 91-180 days = 5.9%), as did 30-day mortality (0-30 days = 14.2%, 31-60 days = 11.5%, 61-90 days = 10.5%, and 91-180 days = 9.9%). MI within 30 days of an operation was associated with a higher risk of postoperative MI (RR range = 9.98-44.29 for the 5 procedures), 30-day mortality (RR range, 1.83-3.84), and 1-year mortality (RR range, 1.56-3.14). CONCLUSIONS: A recent MI remains a significant risk factor for postoperative MI and mortality following surgery. Strategies such as delaying elective operations for at least 8 weeks and medical optimization should be considered.