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ACCF/AHA Issue Guidelines for Perioperative Use of Beta-Blockers

The American College of Cardiology Foundation and the American Heart Association have updated their 2007 guidelines for perioperative beta-blocker use.

Among the changes, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology:

• Routine use of high-dose beta-blockers without dose titration is not helpful and may be harmful to cardiac-surgery patients naive to beta-blockers.
  
• Beta-blockers, titrated to blood pressure and heart rate prior to surgery, are "probably" indicated in patients at high cardiac risk who are undergoing vascular surgery.
  
• Use of the drugs is reasonable in patients undergoing vascular surgery who have coronary artery disease or cardiac ischemia.
  

LINK(S):

Journal of the American College of Cardiology article (Free PDF)

Published in Physician's First Watch November 3, 2009