Aims: To determine whether statins can reduce perioperative morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing non-cardiac vascular surgery.
Methods: A search using Pubmed was performed to identify reports in English. The search terms were: "statins", "perioperative morbidity", "perioperative mortality" and "vascular surgery". We excluded studies dealing with the effect of statins in cardiac surgery. Retrieved articles were manually searched.
Results: Current evidence shows that statins decrease perioperative morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing non-cardiac vascular surgery. Any benefit probably occurs soon (within a month) after initiating treatment.
Conclusions: Appropriately designed trials need to confirm the beneficial effect of perioperative statin therapy in various patient categories. The optimal duration and dose of perioperative statin therapy should be defined.