Checking blood pressure every 2.5 minutes shows limited benefit

A new randomized clinical trial published in Anesthesiology investigated whether anesthesiologists should measure blood pressure every 2.5 minutes instead of every 5 minutes during noncardiac surgery. The study enrolled 264 adults aged 45 years and older who were randomly assigned to two groups with different monitoring intervals. The results demonstrated that doubling the frequency of blood pressure measurements did not significantly reduce the overall burden of intraoperative hypotension. The median time-weighted average mean arterial pressure below 65 mmHg was 0.00 mmHg in both groups with no statistically significant difference. Approximately 98 percent of patients received norepinephrine during surgery. However, the study suggested that more frequent measurements may help reduce episodes of profound hypotension, an observation that warrants further investigation.