Response to perioperative statin therapy in cardiac surgery: a matter of race and timing?

Abstract

We read with great interest the recent article by Zheng et al. describing the STICS clinical trial testing whether perioperative rosuvastatin administration lowers rates of postoperative atrial fibrillation (AF) and myocardial infarction after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) or CABG plus aortic valve surgery (1). These are important questions because we know that postoperative AF after cardiac surgery has significant implications on health care outcomes and costs (2). Notably, the STICS study revealed no difference in postoperative AF rates between placebo and rosuvastatin treated groups.