Viewpoint
Non-cardiac surgery in the heart failure patient
Joel P Reginelli, Roger M MillsDepartment of
Cardiology, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Correspondence to: Roger M Mills MD, Department of Cardiology, Desk F15, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 9500 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA millsr@ccf.org
Accepted 23 January
2001
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
 |
Introduction |
|---|
In this era of increasingly procedural cardiology, many physicians regard the cognitive exercise of preoperative evaluation for non-cardiac surgery as an onerous task. In reality, the preoperative period affords a window of opportunity for the consulting cardiologist to minimise surgical risk by maximising medical treatment, directing appropriate testing, and communicating effectively with the surgical team. Many physicians are unaware that nearly half of all perioperative deaths are related to cardiac events, and they may greatly underestimate the degree to which heart failure contributes to this cardiac mortality. It is imperative as a consulting cardiologist to develop a consistent approach to heart failure patients in order to avoid unnecessary, and potentially dangerous, preoperative diagnostic and therapeutic interventions.
In this article we will briefly review recent data relating to
predictors of surgical risks, and propose an approach for integrating the clinical evaluation of cardiac status and surgical risk in order to
provide
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
