Cardiac Risk of Noncardiac Surgery

Major perioperative cardiac events are estimated to complicate between 1.4% and 3.9% of surgeries. Because most surgeries are elective, there is the opportunity to implement strategies to reduce this risk. Accurate identification of patients at risk for such events will allow patients to be better informed about the benefit-to-risk ratio of procedures, and guide allotment of limited clinical resources, utilization of preventive interventions, and areas of future research. This review focuses on important features of the initial pre-operative clinical risk assessment, indications for diagnostic testing to quantify cardiac risk, and the methods and indications for pre-emptive therapies.