The Impact of Early Surgery and Maintenance of Antiplatelet Therapy on Intraoperative Bleeding and Major Adverse Cardiovascular Event After Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

Recent guidelines of the ACC/AHA suggest that elective non-cardiac surgery (NCS) should optimally be delayed one year after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting stent (DES). Regarding the antiplatelet agents, dual antiplatelet therapy, or at least aspirin is recommended to be continued considering the relative risk of bleeding and stent thrombosis especially during the first 4 to 6 weeks after DES implantation. However, these recommendations are based upon insufficient and conflicting evidences.

The aim of our study was (1) to determine independent risk factors for postoperative adverse events and the strength of their association, (2) to assess the incidences of postoperative morbidities including major adverse cardiovascular and cerebral event as a function of time between PCI and surgery and (3) to compare bleeding amount and transfusion requirements between different intervals from PCI to surgery and durations of antiplatelet agent administration prior to surgery. To achieve this aim, we undertook a retrospective cohort study of the patients who underwent noncardiac surgery after PCI with DES.