Photo Credit: wildpixel

The following is a summary of “Effect of Postoperative Atrial Fibrillation After Cardiac Surgery: A Meta-Analysis,” published in the December 2024 issue of Cardiology by Qu et al.  

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a familiar complication following cardiac surgery, potentially impacting long-term health outcomes for patients.  

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to evaluate how postoperative AF affects long-term mortality and stroke risk for patients after cardiac surgery.  

They reviewed 3,486 studies until August 2024, selecting 38 studies involving 241,299 patients who had undergone cardiac surgery. The ORs and 95% CIs were used to assess the impact of postoperative AF on mortality and stroke rates, applying both fixed and random models.  

The results showed that patients with postoperative AF had notably higher mortality at 1 year (OR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.12–1.72; P<0.001), 5 years (OR, 1.61; 95% CI, 1.33–1.94; P<0.001), and 10 years (OR, 1.61; 95% CI, 1.39–1.87; P<0.001). Patients also had a significantly higher risk of experiencing a stroke (OR, 1.61; 95% CI, 1.34–1.94; P<0.001) compared to patients without postoperative AF.  

They concluded that postoperative AF significantly increased the risk of mortality and stroke for patients following cardiac surgery. Further research is needed to confirm these findings.  

Source: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/clc.70053