Top 10 issues in hospital medicine for 2009, issue 10: the rising importance of statin drugs in hospitalized patients

This year we saw continued and growing interest in this subject. Here are the highlights:

Statins improve the COPD outcomes of mortality, frequency of exacerbations, frequency of mechanical ventilation and frequency of need for emergency care.

Perioperative statin use cuts myocardial ischemic events in half in patients undergoing vascular surgery.

More rapid titration of statin drugs to goal may reduce events.

Acute statin dosing may improve acute coronary syndrome outcomes.

Pleiotropic statin effects improve stroke outcomes.

Statins improve outcomes in sepsis.

Acute statin use in ACS and perioperative statin use represent potential opportunities for intervention. The data for COPD, sepsis and stroke represent comparisons between users and non users. That may be important for hospitalists in deciding which home medications to continue in the hospital when patients are admitted with these conditions.

Don't be surprised in a few years if statin administration, like DVT prophylaxis, shows up on your hospital safety check list.