The clinical impact of prophylactic concomitant left atrial appendage occlusion during cardiac surgery: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background

Recently, concomitant left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) has emerged as prophylactic treatment option for preventing thromboembolic events in patients undergoing cardiac surgery with no known history of atrial fibrillation. The efficacy of prophylactic LAAO remains unknown.

Methods

PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Emcare, and the Cochrane Library were searched for studies on prophylactic LAAO in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. The primary endpoints were postoperative thromboembolic complications and postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF).

Results

Three randomized trials and seven retrospective observational studies were included: in total, 7369 patients received either prophylactic LAAO (n = 3823) or no prophylactic LAAO (n = 3546) during their index cardiac surgery. Prophylactic LAAO reduced the risk of early thromboembolic events by 58 % (risk ratio: 0.42; 95 % confidence interval: 0.25 to 0.73; p = 0.002; I² = 0 %) with an estimated absolute risk reduction of 0.8 %. On the other hand, a higher risk, albeit statistically not significant, of POAF was seen with LAAO (risk ratio: 1.15; 95 % confidence interval: 1.00 to 1.32; p = 0.051; I² = 64 %). Prophylactic LAAO also reduced the risk of all-time thromboembolic complications by 52 % (hazards ratio: 0.48; 95 % CI: 0.29 to 0.80; p = 0.005; I² = 41 %).

Conclusion

Prophylactic LAAO was associated with a reduction in early and all-time thromboembolic events but demonstrated a potential relation to a higher risk of POAF.