title: Percutaneous atrial appendage occlusion for stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation: a systematic review.
abstract: This review aims to evaluate systematically the safety and efficacy of percutaneous left atrial appendage occlusion (PLAAO) in stroke prevention for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). A systematic review of peer-reviewed journals on PLAAO before June 2011 was performed on three electronic databases. Fourteen studies were identified for evaluation. Overall, implantation was successful in 93% of all cases. Periprocedural mortality and stroke rates were 1.1% and 0.6%, respectively. The incidences of pericardial effusion/cardiac tamponade and device embolisation were 4% and 0.7%, respectively. At the time of the latest follow-up (up to 40 months), the overall incidence of stroke among all studies was 1.4% per annum. Existing evidence suggests that PLAAO is a relatively safe treatment for patients with AF. However, there is a need for further evaluation of its efficacy in the form of large and well-designed randomised controlled trials.
authors.affiliation: The University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Stine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Munkholm-Larsen
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Tristan D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Steen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pehrson
authors.forename: Ulrik
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Dixen
mesh_terms: D020517:Atrial Appendage; D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization / Q000379:methods*; D017548:Echocardiography, Transesophageal; D004621:Embolization, Therapeutic / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D020521:Stroke / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016896:Treatment Outcome