In patients who have or are at risk for coronary artery disease who must undergo noncardiac surgery, treatment with atenolol during hospitalization can reduce mortality and the incidence of cardiovascular complications for as long as two years after surgery.

Perioperative administration of clonidine for 4 days to patients at risk for coronary artery disease significantly reduces the incidence of perioperative myocardial ischemia and postoperative death.

These results differ from those of previous studies and suggest that the routine use of 201Tl scintigraphy for preoperative screening of patients undergoing vascular surgery may not be warranted.

The incidence of long-term adverse cardiac outcomes in patients at high risk undergoing infrainguinal operations is substantially greater than in those undergoing aortic operations, mostly because of a greater prevalence of diabetes, and definite coronary artery disease in the former group.

No abstract