Statin use linked to lower death risk a year after surgery
Statin use before surgery was associated with a 1.2-percentage-point lower risk of death within 365 days compared with no statin use.
Dose-response
An observational study examined 56,362 patients aged 45 or older who underwent surgery not involving the heart at two university hospitals between 2016 and 2023. Researchers compared patients already taking statins, medicines that lower cholesterol, with those taking none. They used statistical weighting to balance measured differences between the groups.
Statin use was associated with a lower risk of death within 365 days. The association was stronger for high-intensity regimens than for low- or intermediate-intensity regimens. High-intensity use was linked to a 2.3-percentage-point lower risk than no use. The link with lower mortality within 30 days was uncertain: the range of likely values included no difference.
Why it matters
The study addresses survival after surgery in middle-aged and older adults. Its authors suggested that continuing established statin use around an operation may be a preventive strategy.
Caveats
This observational study could not establish that statins caused the lower mortality, and weighting could not rule out unmeasured differences between groups. The authors called for confirmation in a randomised trial.
The paper
Karolinska University Hospital
European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 12 Oct 2026
