To continue or discontinue aspirin in the perioperative period: a randomized, controlled clinical trial

Background: Major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) are a common cause of deathafter non-cardiac surgery. Despite evidence for the benefitof aspirin for secondary prevention, it is often discontinuedin the perioperative period due to the risk of bleeding. Methods: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlledtrial in order to compare the effect of low-dose aspirin withthat of placebo on myocardial damage, cardiovascular, and bleedingcomplications in high-risk patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery.Aspirin (75 mg) or placebo was given 7 days before surgery andcontinued until the third postoperative day. Patients were followedup for 30 days after surgery. Results: A total of 220 patients were enrolled, 109 patients receivedaspirin and 111 received placebo. Four patients (3.7%) in theaspirin group and 10 patients (9.0%) in the placebo group hadelevated troponin T levels in the postoperative period (P=0.10).Twelve patients (5.4%) had an MACE during the first 30 postoperativedays. Two of these patients (1.8%) were in the aspirin groupand 10 patients (9.0%) were in the placebo group (P=0.02). Treatmentwith aspirin resulted in a 7.2% absolute risk reduction [95%confidence interval (CI), 1.3–13%] for postoperative MACE.The relative risk reduction was 80% (95% CI, 9.2–95%).Numbers needed to treat were 14 (95% CI, 7.6–78). No significantdifferences in bleeding complications were seen between thetwo groups. Conclusions: In high-risk patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery, perioperativeaspirin reduced the risk of MACE without increasing bleedingcomplications. However, the study was not powered to evaluatebleeding complications. This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in British Journal of Anaesthesia following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version:Anna Oscarsson Tibblin, Anil Gupta, Mats Fredrikson, Johannes Järhult, Matti Nyström, Eva Pettersson, Bijan Darvish, Helena Krook, Eva Swahn and Christina Eintrei, To continue or discontinue aspirin in the perioperative period: a randomized, controlled clinical trial, 2010, British Journal of Anaesthesia, (104), 3, 305-312.is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1093/bja/aeq003Copyright: Oxford University Presshttp://www.oxfordjournals.org