Fig. 2.
Timing of perioperative hypotension and cardiovascular events. We considered postoperative day (POD) 1 to be the period after surgery on the day of surgery. One hundred sixty-one patients (16.9%) experienced hypotension during surgery and 252 (26.4%) at least once after surgery. Among the 74 patients who suffered a myocardial infarction (MI) or cardiovascular (CV) death, 68 (91.9%) experienced this before POD 4. The statistical analysis included only hypotension occurring on or before POD 3 because the day of hypotensive episodes occurring on or after POD 4 was not recorded. Only 12 (1.3%) patients had their first episode of postoperative hypotension on or after POD 4. Two hundred thirty-six patients (24.7%) experienced at least one episode of postoperative hypotension on or before the day of their myocardial infarction or cardiac death. Five patients died of noncardiac causes, one on each of POD 6, 9, 22, 25, and 27. OR, operating room.