title banner

OR in the News

OR in the News (selected articles)

Turan, A., Rivas, E., Devereaux, P. J., Bravo, M., Mao, G., Cohen, B., Maheshwari, K., Pu, X., Ruetzler, K., Li, K., Sessler, D. I. Association between postoperative haemoglobin concentrations and composite of non-fatal myocardial infarction and all-cause mortality in noncardiac surgical patients: post hoc analysis of the POISE-2 trial. Br J Anaesth 2021: 126 (1) 87-93

October 16, 2021

Background:
Myocardial infarction is the most common postoperative major vascular complication. Perioperative anaemia may contribute to cardiac supplyedemand mismatch, and therefore myocardial injury. We therefore tested the hypothesis that the lowest in-hospital postoperative haemoglobin concentration is associated with a composite of nonfatal myocardial infarction and all-cause mortality within the first 30 days after noncardiac surgery.
Methods:
We conducted a retrospective analysis of patients enrolled in the PeriOperative Ischemic Evaluation-2 (POISE-2) trial. We assessed the association between the lowest postoperative haemoglobin concentration during the initial hospitalisation and a composite of non-fatal myocardial infarction (Third Universal Definition) and all-cause mortality within 30 postoperative days, using a multivariable logistic regression model.
Results:
We analysed 7227 patients from POISE-2, of whom 7.8% developed myocardial infarction; 1.5% died within 30 days. The composite primary outcome of non-fatal myocardial infarction and all-cause mortality occurred in 8.9% patients overall, ranging from 16% in patients with postoperative haemoglobin concentrations <88 g L1 to 4.1% in patients with postoperative haemoglobin >113 g L1 . After adjusting for baseline factors, in patients with a lowest postoperative haemoglobin concentration <110 g L1 , each 10 g L1 reduction in the lowest postoperative haemoglobin concentration was associated with a 1.46 (95% confidence interval: 1.37e1.56; P<0.001) fold increase in the odds of the composite outcome. In contrast, there was no significant relationship amongst patients with lowest postoperative haemoglobin concentration >110 g L1 .
Conclusions: Postoperative anaemia may be a modifiable risk factor for non-fatal myocardial infarction and all-cause mortality.
Keywords: anaemia; anaesthesia; cardiovascular risk; haemoglobin; myocardial infarction; postoperative outcomes risk; surgery