Early Postoperative Atrial Fibrillation Tied to Increased Long-Term Mortality After Cardiac Surgery: Study
Researchers have found in a new study that early postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) following cardiac surgery is significantly associated with higher long-term mortality, though not with an increased risk of late stroke, after adjusting for demographic and clinical factors.
Early postoperative atrial fibrillation (early-POAF) is the most common complication after cardiac surgery. Although prior studies have demonstrated an association between early-POAF and late outcomes, it is questionable whether these long-term adverse events result from early-POAF or from comorbidities that underlie the development of early-POAF. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the association of early-POAF with late mortality and stroke after adjustment for age and cardiovascular comorbidities.
A systematic search was conducted to identify studies reporting on late mortality after cardiac surgery in patients with and without early-POAF. Articles presenting Kaplan–Meier were included for a pooled analysis of late mortality (primary outcome) and stroke (secondary outcome). Individual time-to-event data were reconstructed from the Kaplan–Meier curves and incorporated into a multivariable mixed-effects Cox model. Results: In total, 33 studies were included in the analysis for late mortality (131 031 patients) and 10 studies in the analysis for late stroke (42 042 patients).
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