title: Does preoperative statin therapy prevent postoperative atrial fibrillation in patients undergoing cardiac surgery?
abstract: A best evidence topic was written according to a structured protocol. The question addressed was: does preoperative statin therapy prevent postoperative atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients undergoing cardiac surgery? There were 445 papers found using the reported search. From these, 12 represented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The authors, journal, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes and results of these papers are tabulated. This paper includes three systematic reviews with meta-analysis, five randomized controlled trials and four retrospective studies. All the papers compared either all or some of the following postoperative complications: mortality, morbidity, AF, length of hospital stay (intensive care unit and hospital) and inflammatory markers. The largest study in this paper includes a systematic review of 91 491 patients that showed a reduction in postoperative AF with preoperative statin therapy (OR = 0.71, 95% CI 0.61-0.82, P <0.0001). However, the durations (3 days to 2 months preoperatively), doses and types of preoperative statin differed between these papers. Although the majority of studies (10 of 12) support the use of statins preoperatively, 2 studies found no association between preoperative statin therapy and the reduction of postoperative AF. In conclusion, the available evidence suggests that preoperative statin therapy in patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery is associated with the following: (1) a lower incidence and risk of developing postoperative AF, (2) reduced stroke, (3) a shorter hospital stay and (4) reduced levels of inflammatory markers postoperatively. However, while the evidence supports the use of statins preoperatively, the optimal duration, dose and type of statin cannot be concluded from this review.
authors.affiliation: Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia seanlukegoh@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Sean L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Goh
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, National Heart Centre, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore.
authors.forename: Kok H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Yap
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, National Heart Centre, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore.
authors.forename: Kim C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Chua
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, National Heart Centre, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore.
authors.forename: Victor T T
authors.initials: VT
authors.lastname: Chao
mesh_terms: D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011300:Preoperative Care / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors
keywords: Arrhythmia; Atrial fibrillation; Cardiac surgery; Postoperative complications; Preoperative care; Statins