Long-Term Trends in Preoperative Cardiac Evaluation and Myocardial Infarction after Elective Vascular Procedures.

INTRODUCTION Vascular surgery has seen rapid increase in the use of less invasive endovascular therapies along with advancements in cardiac perioperative optimization in the past two decades. However, a recent NSQIP database study found no improvement in postoperative myocardial infarction (POMI) over a 10-year period in high-risk procedures. The national Society for Vascular Surgery Vascular Quality Initiative (VQI) registry provides a more in-depth characterization of vascular surgery procedures. Here we sought to evaluate long-term trends in POMI using VQI registry data for patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy (CEA), thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR), endovascular aortic repair (EVAR), open abdominal aortic aneurysm repair (oAAA), suprainguinal bypass (SIB), and infrainguinal bypass (IIB). METHODS A retrospective cohort study was performed using data on elective procedures from 2003-17. Procedures were subdivided by date of operation into 3-year era consecutive groups for subanalysis (2003-05, 2006-08, 2009-11, 2012-14, 2015-17). The incidence of POMI, preoperative risk factors (including individual patient VQI cardiac risk indices (CRI)), and demographics were determined over time. RESULTS A total of 227,837 elective procedures were identified: CEA (n=88,805, 39.0%), TEVAR (n=7,494, 3.3%), EVAR (n=34,376, 15.1%), oAAA (n= 7,568, 3.3%), SIB (n=11,354, 5.0%), and IIB (n=34,661, 15.2%). Across all procedures, the overall rate of POMI was 1.3%. POMI rates from 2003-05 to 2015- 17 for CEA decreased from 0.9% to 0.7% (p=0.21), EVAR from 2.0% to 0.7%, p= 0.003, oAAA from 6.8% to 5.1% (p=0.12), and IIB from 3.8% to 2.4% (p=0.003). SIB POMI decreased from 3.06% to 2.95%, p=0.85 from 2009-17. While POMI after TEVAR increased from 2.40% to 2.56% from 2009-17, p=0.91. Over these same time periods, only EVAR and IIB had a reduction in CRI (p=0.059 and p<0.001, respectively). CEA, EVAR, IIB, and oAAA all showed a significant (p<0.001) increase in preoperative statin use. CONCLUSIONS Except for TEVAR, the incidence of POMI has remained unchanged or decreased over the past 15 years in VQI registries. Patients undergoing IIB and EVAR demonstrated decreases in POMI rates that correspond with a reduction in CRI and increased preoperative statin use. CEA and SIB had no significant change in POMI rates nor CRI. The etiology of decreased POMI rate is uncertain, but increasing statin use, patient-specific factors, and patient selection for procedures may be important drivers of this improvement.