Preoperative drug therapy >> Statins

53% of elective admission patients were taking statins at the time of operation.

One could expect that the use of statins would have been widespread in this population, because patients with aortic aneurysms are regarded as being at risk of coronary heart disease and statins are indicated for any patient with a suspicion of coronary heart disease. There is also evidence that the outcome of surgery in patients at high risk of cardiac complications is improved by the administration of statins ^2,3,4. The questionnaire asked whether the patient was taking statins at the time of the operation (Table 3).

Table 3. Elective patients taking statins at the time of operation
Statins	Total	%
Yes	198	53
No	174	47
Sub-total	372
Unknown	4
Not answered	58
Total	434

Table 4 shows the number of patients admitted as an emergency who were taking statins at the time of operation.

Table 4. Emergency patients taking statins at the time of operation
Statins	Total	%
Yes	61	31
No	135	69
Sub-total	196
Unknown	23
Not answered	45
Total	264

53% (198/372) of patients admitted electively were receiving statins, compared with 31% (61/196) admitted as an emergency.