Objective. To study the effect of preoperative atrial fibrillation (AF) on the risk of stroke and long-term mortality after Off Pump Coronary Artery Bypass (OPCAB).
Materials and methods. A retrospective analysis of the results of OPCAB in 212 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), who were operated on from May 2009 to November 2013, was carried out. After propensity score matching, patients were divided into 2 groups: Group I 82 patients with sinus rhythm (SR) before surgery, Group II (control) 102 patients with AF before surgery. The average age of the included patients was 61 6.7 years, with 95 % CI: 6062. Fifty-four (29.3 %) patients were over 65 years of age. There were 162 men (88 %) and 22 women (12 %). The median follow-up was 93.5 (66.7102.0) months.
Results. The time spent in the clinic was statistically significantly shorter in the SR group than in the AF group (10 (911) and 14 (1116) hours, respectively, p 0.001). There was no statistically significant difference in the number of perioperative myocardial infarctions (in the group with SR it occurred in 1 (1.2 %) patient, in the group with AF 2 (2 %), p = 0.7), strokes (in the group with SR 1 (1.2 %), in the group with AF 3 (2.9 %), p = 0.6), as well as a 30-day mortality (in the group with SR it was 0 %, in the group with AF 3 (2.9 %), p = 0.2). In the long-term postoperative period, there were statistically significantly fewer strokes in the group with SR than in the group with AF (in the group with SR, the 10-year stroke freedom was 88.8 %, and in the group with AF 71.8 %, p = 0.018), and also better long-term survival in the group with sinus rhythm (in the group with SR, the 10-year survival rate was 79 %, in the group with AF 63.9 %, p = 0.016).
Conclusions. In the group with preoperative AF, the frequency of distant strokes and deaths is higher than in patients with sinus rhythm.