Internal Cardioversion Shortens Periods of Postoperative Atrial Fibrillation: Results of a Prospective, Multicenter Trial

Abstract

Internal cardioversion using Syncrus heart wires demonstrated effectiveness in treating postoperative AF. Especially, length of AF periods could be diminished by the system with the expectation of reduction in hospital length of stay.

DefiPaceTM System, A New Device for Cardioversion of Atrial Fibrillation After Cardiac Surgery — Preliminary Results

“…[ 19 ], and also in a study by Dzemali et al . [ 18 ], using the so-called Syncrus wires, a similar version of the TADpole wires. The authors concluded that this treatment is expected to reduce hospital length of stay and therefore hospital costs, and improve patient outcomes.…”

“…However, the anode (zigzag) must still be placed carefully. The concept of bi-atrial cardioversion is already proven with good results and can be performed without anesthesia or only a little sedation [ 13 , 15 , 18 ]. Liebold treated 20 patients for atrial fibrillation (AF) with a shock energy up to 10 J.…”

“…Bi-atrial pacing, as a measure to prevent the onset of POAF, has been shown to be successful in many clinical studies and meta-analyses [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ], and have been included in the European Guidelines for cardiac surgery patients, even in the absence of a commercially available bi-atrial pacemaker device. Similarly, low-energy internal cardioversion of POAF has also been used for some time [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ], and good results have already been achieved with this technique. However, the procedures were less practicable because they required complex fixation of the electrodes, and two separate devices were required for postoperative pacing and low-energy cardioversion.…”