The Effect of Atrial Fibrillation (AF) on the Clinical Outcome of Patients Undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) Surgery

Background: The development of AF post CABG is still an enigma. There have been theories that related the development of AF to aging, more severe coronary artery disease, longer pump machine time, etc. Our aim was to find out the clinical characteristics of patients that developed AF during or following CABG surgery.

Methods: A retrospective study following 239 patients that underwent CABG surgery in the Baruch Padeh Medical Center in the last 4 years. There were 34 women and 205 men, aged 61.85±9.57 years. We used student t-test to study the effect of AF on all the variables to find an association between AF and gender, history of coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and the number of coronary grafts, readmission rate, and mortality.

Results: Among the 239 patients who underwent CABG 2 patients died (0.8%). A gender effect was found among patients who developed AF - 11/34 female (34%), 40/166 male (19%) patients (p=0.05). Readmission rate was higher among patients who developed AF – 16/36 (32%) patients with AF were readmitted, while 35/152 of patients without AF were readmitted (19%) (p=0.04). No association was found between AF and any of the other parameters that were studied.

Discussion: Out of 239 patients who underwent CABG in our medical canter 2 patients died, 61 developed AF (more women) and those who had AF had a higher readmission rate. Female patients undergoing CABG have a higher probability to develop AF. Those patients who developed AF also had a higher readmission rate following CABG. Overall, surgeons should be more aware to the gender effect, and remember that women have a higher risk to develop AF and post-operative complications.