Resuming β blockers in chronic users by the end of the first postoperative day may be associated with lower odds of in-hospital atrial fibrillation. However, there seems to be little advantage to restarting on the day of surgery itself. Of propensity score–matched patients who resumed β blockers by end of postoperative day 1, 4.9% developed atrial fibrillation, compared with 7.0% (68 of 973) of those who resumed thereafter. The authors evaluated 8,201 adult β-blocker users with no previous history of atrial fibrillation who stayed at least two nights after noncardiothoracic and nonvascular surgery as a retrospective observational cohort.

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