Should We Ablate Atrial Fibrillation During Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting and Aortic Valve Replacement?

Randomized feasibility trial of prophylactic radiofrequency ablation to prevent atrial fibrillation after cardiac surgery

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the feasibility of prophylactic radiofrequency isolation of the pulmonary veins, with left atrial appendage amputation, to reduce the incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation after cardiac surgery in patients aged 70 years and older.

METHODS

The Federal Food and Drug Administration granted an investigational device exemption to utilize a bipolar radiofrequency clamp for prophylactic pulmonary vein isolation in a limited feasibility trial. Sixty-two patients without prior dysrhythmias were prospectively randomized to undergo either their index cardiac surgical procedure or bilateral pulmonary vein isolation and left atrial appendage amputation during their cardiac operation. The primary outcome was occurrence of in-hospital postoperative atrial fibrillation. Subjects were on 24-hour telemetry until discharge. Dysrhythmias, any episode of atrial fibrillation >30 seconds, were confirmed by electrophysiologists blinded to the study.

RESULTS

Sixty patients, mean age 75 years and mean Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age (>65 = 1, >75 = 2 points), Diabetes, previous Stroke/Transient ischemic attack (2 points), Vascular disease, Gender (female) score of 4, were analyzed. Thirty-one patients randomized to control and 29 to the treatment group. The majority of patients in each group underwent isolated coronary artery bypass grafting. No perioperative complications related to the treatment procedure, need for permanent pacemaker, or mortality occurred. The in-hospital incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation was 55% (17 out of 31) in the control group and 7% (2 out of 29) in the treatment group (P < .001) The control group had a significantly higher requirement for antiarrhythmic medications at discharge: 45% (14 out of 31) versus 7% (2 out of 29) in the treatment group (P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

Prophylactic radiofrequency isolation of the pulmonary veins with left atrial appendage amputation during the primary cardiac surgical operation reduced the incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation in patients aged 70 years and older with no history of atrial arrhythmias.

Concomitant Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation in Isolated Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting

BACKGROUND

Societal guidelines support concomitant management of atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. To assess real-world adoption and outcomes, this study evaluated Medicare beneficiaries with AF who underwent isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) with surgical ablation (SA) or left atrial appendage obliteration (LAAO) or both procedures in combination (SA + LAAO).

METHODS

The US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services inpatient claims database identified all patients with AF who underwent isolated CABG from 2018 to 2020. Diagnosis-related group and International Classification of Diseases-10th revision procedure codes defined covariates for doubly robust risk adjustment.

RESULTS

A total of 19,524 patients with preoperative AF who underwent isolated CABG were stratified by SA + LAAO (3475 patients; 17.8%), LAAO only (4541 patients; 23.3%), or no AF treatment (11,508 patients; 58.9%). After doubly robust risk adjustment, longitudinal analysis highlighted that concomitant AF treatment with SA + LAAO (hazard ratio [HR], 0.74; P = .049) or LAAO alone (HR, 0.75; P = . 031) was associated with a significant reduction in readmission for stroke at 3 years compared with no AF treatment. Furthermore, SA + LAAO (HR, 0.86; P = .016) but not LAAO alone (HR, 0.97; P = .573) was associated with improved survival compared with no AF treatment. Finally, SA + LAAO was associated with a superior composite outcome of freedom from stroke or death at 3 years compared with LAAO alone (HR, 0.86;, P = .033) or no AF treatment (HR, 0.81; P = .001).

CONCLUSIONS

In Medicare beneficiaries with AF who underwent isolated CABG, concomitant AF treatment was associated with reduced 3-year readmission for stroke. SA + LAAO was associated with superior reduction in stroke or death at 3 years compared with LAAO alone or no AF treatment.

Clinical benefits of surgical ablation during isolated aortic valve replacement: a nationwide study

OBJECTIVES

To compare the early- and long-term clinical outcomes of concomitant surgical ablation (SA) for atrial fibrillation (AF) during isolated aortic valve replacement (AVR) using data from the Korean National Health Insurance Service Database.

METHODS

Of 23,332 adult patients who underwent AVR between 2003 and 2019, those with underlying AF with or without concomitant SA were extracted, and propensity score matching analysis was performed.

RESULTS

Overall, 1,741 patients with underlying AF with (n = 445, group A) or without (n = 1,296, group N) concomitant SA during isolated AVR were enrolled, from whom 435 pairs were matched in a 1:1 ratio using propensity score matching analysis. The operative mortality and early postoperative morbidities, including bleeding reoperation, stroke, permanent pacemaker implantation and acute kidney injury were comparable between the groups. The overall survival showed no differences between the groups. However, the cumulative incidence of new-onset late ischaemic stroke was significantly lower in group A than group N in propensity score-matched patients [2.3 vs 3.5 per 100 patient-years, adjusted hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) 0.64 (0.43-0.96), Group A versus Group N, respectively]. The cumulative incidence of other morbidities such as reoperation, permanent pacemaker implantation and progression to chronic renal failure showed no difference between groups.

CONCLUSIONS

The incidence of late ischaemic stroke was significantly lower when concomitant SA was performed during isolated AVR in patients with underlying AF. Therefore, concomitant SA should be actively considered in patients with underlying AF undergoing isolated AVR to prevent the occurrence of late ischaemic stroke.

Atrial fibrillation ablation improves late survival after concomitant cardiac surgery

OBJECTIVE

Preoperative atrial fibrillation (AF) increases risk of stroke, heart failure, and all-cause mortality after cardiac surgery. Despite encouraging results and guideline recommendations, surgical ablation (SA) for AF concomitant with other heart surgery remains low. In the current study we aimed to address the long-term mortality after SA concomitant with cardiac surgery.

METHODS

This report pertains to the HEart surgery In atrial fibrillation and Supraventricular Tachycardia (HEIST) registry. We identified 20,765 adult patients (62% male) with preoperative AF who underwent conventional sternotomy heart surgery between 2010 and 2021 in 8 tertiary centers in Poland, Netherlands, and Italy. We used Cox proportional hazards models for computations and propensity score matching to minimize differences in baseline characteristics.

RESULTS

Of included patients, 2755 (13.4%) underwent SA for AF. The highest rates of SA were observed for mitral interventions (mitral valve repair or replacement and tricuspid intervention, 25.2%), lowest for isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (6.2%). Patients in the SA group were younger (mean age 64.5 ± 9.0 years vs 68.7 ± 16.0 years; P < .001) and lower risk (mean European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation [EuroSCORE] II, 4.1 vs 5.7; P < .001). During the 11-year study period, there was a mortality reduction associated with SA (hazard ratio, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.52-0.62; P < .001). After propensity matching, 2750 pairs with similar baseline characteristics were identified. SA was associated with 16% mortality decline (hazard ratio, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.75-0.94; P = .003).

CONCLUSIONS

In this multicenter, retrospective, propensity matched study, SA concomitant with other cardiac surgery was associated with improved long-term survival regardless of baseline surgical risk.

Patients with Atrial Fibrillation Benefit from SAVR with Surgical Ablation Compared to TAVR Alone

Introduction

In patients with preoperative atrial fibrillation (AF) undergoing aortic valve replacement, the addition of surgical ablation to surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR-SA) is efficacious and a Class I guideline. We hypothesized that this subgroup may benefit from SAVR-SA compared to transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) alone.

Methods

Medicare beneficiaries with persistent non-valvular AF who underwent SAVR-SA or TAVR alone between 2012 and 2018 were included. Patients with high-risk surgical comorbidities were excluded. Groups were matched using inverse probability weighting. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality. Secondary outcomes were stroke, transient ischemic attack, permanent pacemaker implantation, bleeding, rehospitalization for atrial arrhythmias, and rehospitalization for heart failure. Kaplan–Meier estimates and Cox proportional-hazards regression were used to compare outcomes. Outcomes were adjusted for variables with a standardized mean difference greater than 0.1.

Results

Of 439,492 patients who underwent aortic valve replacement, 2591 underwent SAVR-SA and 1494 underwent TAVR alone. Weighting resulted in adequately matched groups. Compared to TAVR alone, SAVR-SA was associated with a significant reduction in all-cause mortality (HR 0.65, 95% CI 0.53–0.79), permanent pacemaker implantation (HR 0.62, 95% CI 0.44–0.87), bleeding (HR 0.63, 95% CI 0.39–1.00), and rehospitalization for heart failure (HR 0.49 (0.36–0.65). There was no difference in the incidence of stroke (HR 1.07, 95% CI 0.74–1.54), transient ischemic attack (HR 1.05, 95% CI 0.75–1.47), or rehospitalization for atrial arrhythmia.

Conclusion

Select patients with persistent non-valvular AF may benefit from SAVR-SA compared to TAVR alone.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40119-022-00262-w.

Surgery and Catheter Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation: History, Current Practice, and Future Directions

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common of all cardiac arrhythmias, affecting roughly 1% of the general population in the Western world. The incidence of AF is predicted to double by 2050. Most patients with AF are treated with oral medications and only approximately 4% of AF patients are treated with interventional techniques, including catheter ablation and surgical ablation. The increasing prevalence and the morbidity/mortality associated with AF warrants a more aggressive approach to its treatment. It is the purpose of this invited editorial to describe the past, present, and anticipated future directions of the interventional therapy of AF, and to crystallize the problems that remain.

Cardiac surgery 2017 reviewed

For the year 2017, more than 21,000 published references can be found in PubMed when entering the search term "cardiac surgery". This review focusses on conventional cardiac surgery, considering the new interventional techniques only if they were directly compared to classic techniques but also entails aspects of perioperative intensive care management. The publications last year provided a plethora of new and interesting information that helped to quantify classic surgical treatment effects and provided new guidelines for the management of structural heart disease, which made comparisons to interventional techniques easier. The field of coronary bypass surgery was primarily filled with confirmatory evidence for the beneficial role of coronary artery bypass grafting for complex coronary disease and equal outcomes for percutaneous coronary intervention for less complex disease including main stem lesions. For aortic valve treatment, the new guidelines provide an equal recommendation for surgical and transcatheter aortic valve replacement for high and intermediate risk giving specific check lists to individualize decision-making by the heart team. For low-risk aortic stenosis, surgical valve replacement remains the primary indication. For the mitral valve, the importance of surgical experience of the individual surgeon on short- and long-term outcome was presented and the prognostic impact of mitral repair for primary mitral regurgitation was emphasized. In addition, there were many relevant and interesting other contributions from the purely operative arena in the fields of tricuspid disease as well as terminal heart failure (i.e., transplantation and ventricular assist devices). While this article attempts to summarize the most pertinent publications, it does not have the expectation of being complete and cannot be free of individual interpretation. As in recent years, it provides a condensed summary that is intended to give the reader "solid ground" for up-to-date decision-making in cardiac surgery.