Lack of Association between Preoperative Statin Use and Respiratory and Neurologic Complications after Cardiac Surgery

Background: Statins may reduce the risk of pulmonary and neurologic complications after cardiac surgery. Methods: The authors acquired data for adults who had coronary artery bypass graft, valve surgery, or combined procedures. The authors matched patients who took statins preoperatively to patients who did not. First, the authors assessed the association between preoperative statin use and the primary outcomes of prolonged ventilation (more than 24h), pneumonia (positive cultures of sputum, transtracheal fluid, bronchial washings, and/or clinical findings consistent with the diagnosis of pneumonia), and in-hospital all-cause mortality, using logistic regressions. Second, the authors analyzed the collapsed composite of neurologic complications using logistic regression. Intensive care unit and hospital length of stay were evaluated with Cox proportional hazard models. Results: Among 14,129 eligible patients, 6,642 patients were successfully matched. There was no significant association between preoperative statin use and prolonged ventilation (statin: 408/3,321 [12.3%] vs. nonstatin: 389/3,321 [11.7%]), pneumonia (44/3,321 [1.3%] vs. 54/3,321 [1.6%]), and in-hospital mortality (52/3,321 [1.6%] vs. 43/3,321 [1.3%]). The estimated odds ratio was 1.06 (98.3% CI, 0.88 to 1.27) for prolonged ventilation, 0.81 (0.50 to 1.32) for pneumonia, and 1.21 (0.74 to 1.99) for in-hospital mortality. Neurologic outcomes were not associated with preoperative statin use (53/3,321 [1.6%] vs. 56/3,321 [1.7%]), with an odds ratio of 0.95 (0.60 to 1.50). The length of intensive care unit and hospital stay was also not associated with preoperative statin use, with a hazard ratio of 1.04 (0.98 to 1.10) for length of hospital stay and 1.00 (0.94 to 1.06) for length of intensive care unit stay. Conclusions: Preoperative statin use did not reduce pulmonary or neurologic complications after cardiac surgery.