Eight RCTs (n=841 participants, range 40 to 200) were included. Five trials were described as being double-blind.
Patients pre-treated with statins were significantly less likely to develop post-operative atrial fibrillation than control patients (OR 0.40, 95% CI 0.29 to 0.55, p=1.0 for heterogeneity; eight trials). There was no evidence of publication bias and sensitivity analyses yielded similar results.
Statin pre-treatment significantly shortened post-operative hospital stay compared to control treatment (SMD -0.39, 95% CI -0.53 to -0.24, p=0.11 for heterogeneity). There were no statistically significant differences between groups for death, myocardial infarction, stroke or for the composite of all three of these outcomes.