Novelties in perioperative cardiovascular management

Abstract

Morbidity and mortality associated with perioperative cardiovascular complications in non-cardiac surgery represent important concerns. Prior cardiovascular risk assessment has become a major challenge for anesthesiologists. The American and European scientific societies have published recommendations in 2007 and 2009. These recommendations supported the preoperative stratification of cardiovascular risk, taking into account risk factors related to the patient’s condition and to the type of surgery. This stratification aims to identify patients at high-risk of perioperative complications. High-risk patients may benefit from more sophisticated preoperative investigations. It is important to understand that the preoperative patients’ conditioning has evolved into a strategy with greater emphasis on the optimization of pharmacological cardioprotection rather than the multiplication of additional tests that ultimately benefit only to a limited number of patients.