Revised cardiac risk index-a simple universal tool for peri-operative risk prediction

摘要

Patients subjected to non-cardiac surgery are at a significant risk to develop cardiac complications. With aging populations and improved surgical and anaesthesia techniques, even elderly populations are frequently considered for non-cardiac surgery today. It is estimated that about 40 million non-cardiac surgeries are performed in Europe annually and the peri-operative myocardial infarction (MI) occurs at a rate of 1% causing 400,000 myocardial infarcts. Further, the cardiovascular mortality rate of 0.3% gives mortality of 133,000 annually related to non-cardiac surgery.1 It is also a well-known fact that the peri-operative complications are more frequent following vascular surgery.2 Number of risk assessment algorithms have been developed and tested, however the revised cardiac risk index (RCRI)3 described by Lee et al. in 1999, remains the most used risk assessment model.