The following is a summary of “Can I Send This Patient With Atrial Fibrillation Home From the Emergency Department?” published in the October 2022 issue of Emergency Medicine by Long et al.
One of the most common types of dysrhythmia treated in an emergency department (ED) is atrial fibrillation(AF). Patients might present themselves in a variety of ways, and the severity of their illnesses can cause them to require hospitalization. As a result, the majority of patients in the United States are admitted to hospitals.
Is there a reliable decision-making tool that physicians may use with patients who present with atrial fibrillation (AF) to predict the likelihood of an undesirable outcome and determine who among them may be acceptable for discharge? Analysis of the Evidence The studies that were retrieved included observational cohorts that were both prospective and retrospective in nature. There were a total of 4 studies that looked back at the data and 2 that looked forward at the data.
The purpose of these studies is to explore the efficacy of risk decision tools in predicting poor outcomes in individuals who have been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (AF). According to the research that is currently available, the RED-AF, AFFORD, and the AFTER (complicated, modified, and pragmatic) ratings all exhibit some degree of predictive discrimination in predicting adverse occurrences; however, it is recommended that these scores undergo further validation.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0736467922004334
