Hypotension-Avoidance Versus Hypertension-Avoidance Strategies in Noncardiac Surgery: An International Randomized Controlled Trial

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  • POISE-3 Trial Investigators and Study Groups

Background: Among patients having noncardiac surgery, perioperative hemodynamic abnormalities are associated with vascular complications. Uncertainty remains about what intraoperative blood pressure to target and how to manage long-term antihypertensive medications perioperatively. Objective: To compare the effects of a hypotension-avoidance and a hypertension-avoidance strategy on major vascular complications after noncardiac surgery. Design: Partial factorial randomized trial of 2 perioperative blood pressure management strategies (reported here) and tranexamic acid versus placebo. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03505723) Setting: 110 hospitals in 22 countries. Patients: 7490 patients having noncardiac surgery who were at risk for vascular complications and were receiving 1 or more long-term antihypertensive medications. Intervention: In the hypotension-avoidance strategy group, the intraoperative mean arterial pressure target was 80 mm Hg or greater; before and for 2 days after surgery, renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system inhibitors were withheld and the other long-term antihypertensive medications were administered only for systolic blood pressures 130 mm Hg or greater, following an algorithm. In the hypertension-avoidance strategy group, the intraoperative mean arterial pressure target was 60 mm Hg or greater; all antihypertensive medications were continued before and after surgery. Measurements: The primary outcome was a composite of vascular death and nonfatal myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery, stroke, and cardiac arrest at 30 days. Outcome adjudicators were masked to treatment assignment. Results: The primary outcome occurred in 520 of 3742 patients (13.9%) in the hypotension-avoidance group and in 524 of 3748 patients (14.0%) in the hypertension-avoidance group (hazard ratio, 0.99 [95% CI, 0.88 to 1.12]; P = 0.92). Results were consistent for patients who used 1 or more than 1 antihypertensive medication in the long term. Limitation: Adherence to the assigned strategies was suboptimal; however, results were consistent across different adherence levels. Conclusion: In patients having noncardiac surgery, our hypotension-avoidance and hypertension-avoidance strategies resulted in a similar incidence of major vascular complications.

Original languageEnglish
JournalAnnals of Internal Medicine
Volume176
Issue number5
Pages (from-to)605-614
Number of pages10
ISSN0003-4819
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Financial Support: By Canadian Institutes of Health Research Foundation Grant awarded to Dr. Devereaux (FDN-143302); National Health and Medical Research Council, Funding Schemes, NHMRC Project Grant 1162362; and General Research Fund 14104419, Research Grant Council, Hong Kong SAR, China. POISE-3 also received financial support from the Population Health Research Institute and the Hamilton Health Science Research Institute, and an investigator-initiated study grant from Roche Diagnostics International.

Funding Information:
Primary Funding Source: Canadian Institutes of Health Research, National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia), and Research Grant Council of Hong Kong.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 American College of Physicians.

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