Summary: | The perioperative management of antiplatelet therapy (APT) for patients with coronary, cerebrovascular, or peripheral vascular stents remains unclear. After percutaneous coronary intervention, American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines recommend delaying elective non-cardiac surgery, ideally 6 months following drug-eluting stent placement and 30 days after bare metal stent placement. For patients on dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT), ACC/AHA guidelines recommend continuing at least aspirin (ASA) throughout the perioperative period and restarting the P2Y12 inhibitor as soon as possible following surgery. However, this latter recommendation is based on expert opinion and was the focus of a recent ESP report. The conclusion of this report was that studies evaluating APT therapy in patients with coronary stents had significant methodologic limitations and that APT therapy likely has a small impact on perioperative bleeding and major adverse cardiac event (MACE) outcomes, compared to other clinical factors such as operative urgency and timing since stent implantation
|