Effect of statins on preventing infectious complications after surgery: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective A meta-analysis to investigate the association between preoperative statin use and the risk of postoperative infectious complications in patients undergoing surgery. These authors contributed equally to this work. Methods PubMed® and Embase® databases were searched for relevant studies. Data were extracted using a standardized data collection form. The primary effect measure was the odds ratio (OR) of postoperative infectious complications. Summary OR were calculated. Results The analysis included 10 cohort studies with a total of 147 263 participants. Statin use was associated with a lower incidence of postoperative infectious complications in all studies (summary OR 0.917, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 0.862, 0.975, fixed-effects model; summary OR 0.731, 95% CI 0.584, 0.870, random-effects model); cardiac surgery (summary OR 0.673; 95% CI 0.535, 0.847); treatment in the USA (summary OR 0.678; 95% CI 0.597, 0.770); retrospective cohort studies (summary OR 0.664; 95% CI 0.521, 0.846). Conclusion Preoperative statin use is associated with a reduced risk of postoperative infectious complications.