Impact of epicardial anterior fat pad retention on postcardiothoracic surgery atrial fibrillation incidence: the AFIST-III Study.

Objectives: We conducted a randomized, blinded, controlled study evaluating the impact of anterior fat pad (AFP) maintenance on postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) incidence.

Background: Drugs with antiadrenergic effects reduce POAF. Because the epicardial AFP is parasympathetically innervated, its routine excision during coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) might precipitate autonomic imbalance and induce POAF.

Postpartum dissection of the left main coronary artery.

Peripartum coronary artery dissection is rare, but it is an increasingly recognized risk to women of childbearing age. Literature reviews reveal that about 80% of the population with spontaneous coronary artery dissections (SCAD) are female, and approximately 25-33% of cases occurred while the woman was pregnant or in the peripartum phase. Most cases have presented within 2 weeks of delivery.

Effect of aprotinin on the frequency of postoperative atrial fibrillation or flutter.

Purpose: The relationship between adding aprotinin to standard care and the frequency of postoperative atrial fibrillation or flutter (POAF) in patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery (CTS) with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) was studied.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort evaluation. All patients at a hospital who underwent CTS with CPB between October 1999 and October 2003 and who received aprotinin during surgery were included in the treatment group.

An evaluation of postoperative P-wave variables after cardiothoracic surgery.

Postoperative atrial fibrillation is common after cardiac surgery. Prediction of which patients will develop postoperative atrial fibrillation would be clinically useful. Increased P-wave duration, suggesting atrial conduction delay and measured from preoperative electrocardiograms, predicts postoperative atrial fibrillation.