• Malene Lopez Kristensen, Palle Mark Christensen, and Jesper Hallas.
• Department of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
• BMJ Open. 2015 Sep 24; 5 (9): e007118.

ObjectiveTo estimate the average postponement of death in statin trials.SettingA systematic literature review of all statin trials that presented all-cause survival curves for treated and untreated.InterventionStatin treatment compared to placebo.Primary Outcome MeasuresThe average postponement of death as represented by the area between the survival curves.Results6 studies for primary prevention and 5 for secondary prevention with a follow-up between 2.0 and 6.1 years were identified. Death was postponed between -5 and 19 days in primary prevention trials and between -10 and 27 days in secondary prevention trials. The median postponement of death for primary and secondary prevention trials were 3.2 and 4.1 days, respectively.ConclusionsStatin treatment results in a surprisingly small average gain in overall survival within the trials' running time. For patients whose life expectancy is limited or who have adverse effects of treatment, withholding statin therapy should be considered.Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

9 keywords...

hide…