ABSTRACT
Nowadays, anesthesiologists are coping with larger numbers of high-risk respiratory
patients as a consequence of prolonged life expectancy, increasing prevalence of chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and greater needs for invasive diagnostic
procedures and surgical interventions (1). The prevalence of COPD is even higher among
some surgical candidates comparedwith age-matched population groups (e.g., 10-12% in
cardiac surgery and 40% in thoracic surgery vs. 5-10% in the general population) (1-3).
Since common risk factors (i.e., smoking, advanced age and sedentarity) are sharedbyboth
respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, a large proportion of COPD patients present
with hypertension (34%), occlusive or aneurysmal arterial disease (12%), cardiac
insufficiency (5%), arrhythmiac (4%), conduction blockade (10%), and/or ischemic heart
disease (11%) (4,5).
