Atrial fibrillation following non-cardiac thoracic surgery

A retrospective study

Abstract

The incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation was studied retrospectively in 3, 561 patients having surgery under general anesthesia. Significantly higher incidence was observed in patients who had thoracotomy alone (7.7%) or thoracotomy with laparotomy (15.0%) in comparison to craniotomy, head and neck surgery, laparotomy or other minor surgery (0.0-0.8%).
To assess the predisposing and precipitating factors of atrial fibrillation following thoracotomy, the data of the patients with atrial fibrillation following non-cardiac thoracic surgery was compared with those without arrhythmia. Advancing age, preexisting hypertension, extrasystole on ECG and postoperative pulmonary complications were taken as the risk factors associated with a higher incidence.
In all cases who developed the atrial fibrillation post operatively, it disappeared during the first postoperative week. Furthermore, none of them died within 30 postoperative days. These findings suggest that the atrial fibrillation following thoracotomy is transient, and its prognosis is relatively good.