2018/02/18 by Thorsten Hanke · 1 citation
Medicine · #Atrial Fibrillation Management and Outcomes #Cardiac Arrhythmias and Treatments #Cardiac tumors and thrombi
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/ejcts/ezy088
openalex publication_date 2018/02/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Surgical treatment of the left atrial appendage (LAA) has increased over the past few years. The most serious complication of atrial fibrillation is a cerebral cardioembolic stroke. In most patients with atrial fibrillation, the LAA is the anatomical source of the embolism. Several surgical techniques for occluding the LAA using different devices have been developed with different prospects of success. It is still not clear which of these techniques represents the optimum treatment for reducing the incidence of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation. This text focuses on the surgical closure of LAA and critically considers the results with respect to closure success and the associated complications.