Heart injury around surgery linked to more deaths in older adults
At one year, 26.2% of older surgical patients with heart injury or heart attack had died, compared with 13.2% of those without.
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
A multicenter prospective observational study analyzed 4,634 patients aged 80 or older, or aged 70 or older with at least three health conditions. All had increased risk of heart or blood vessel disease and underwent major surgery not involving the heart. Their median age was 80, and 42.9% were women.
Heart muscle injury or heart attack around surgery occurred in 892 patients (19.2%). At one year, 26.2% of patients with this complication had died, compared with 13.2% without it. Serious cardiovascular events occurred in 30% versus 13%, respectively. These included death from heart or blood vessel disease, heart attack, life-threatening abnormal heart rhythms and acute heart failure. After adjustment for other factors, the association with death was strongest on the first day after surgery, declined by day 90 and persisted through one year.
Why it matters
The study addressed whether other illnesses in later life lessen the relevance of heart injury when assessing risk after major surgery.
Caveats
This observational study could not establish that heart injury caused the higher death rate. Reported in a conference abstract, the findings do not establish the same risks for younger or lower-risk surgical patients.
The paper
Cardiovascular Research Institute Basel
ESC Congress 2026 Abstract, Oct 26, 2026
Presented at ESC Congress 2026
