Samer A M Nashef, Simon Fynn, Yasir Abu-Omar, Tomasz J Spyt, Christine Mills, Colin C Everett, Julia Fox-Rushby, Jeshika Singh, Malcolm Dalrymple-Hay, Catherine Sudarshan, Massimiliano Codispoti, Peter Braidley, Francis C Wells, Linda D Sharples
OBJECTIVES: Atrial fibrillation (AF) reduces survival and quality of life (QoL). It can be treated at the time of major cardiac surgery using ablation procedures ranging from simple pulmonary vein isolation to a full maze procedure. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of adjunct AF surgery as currently performed on sinus rhythm (SR) restoration, survival, QoL and cost-effectiveness. METHODS: In a multicentre, Phase III, pragmatic, double-blinded, parallel-armed randomized controlled trial, 352 cardiac surgery patients with >3 months of documented AF were randomized to surgery with or without adjunct maze or similar AF ablation between 2009 and 2014...
April 17, 2018: European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery