title: Atrial arrhythmias after pulmonary resection: the important role of pulmonary vein resection.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Atrial arrhythmias (AAs) remain one of the most common complications after pulmonary resection. The association between postoperative AAs and pulmonary vein (PV) resection has not previously been clearly elucidated. A retrospective study on this issue is reported.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 125 patients were involved in this study and all the performed surgical procedures and all postoperative AAs were carefully reviewed and recorded. A univariate and multivariate analyses were utilized to clarify the effect of PV resection on postoperative AAs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall incidence of postoperative AAs was 14.4% (n = 18). A stepwise increase in the incidence of AAs was observed from none, to the inferior of PV resection only, superior PV resection only and up to both inferior and superior PV resection (0, 3.1, 14.3, and 38.5%, respectively; p = 0.000). During multivariate analysis, PV resection was identified as an independent risk factor for postoperative AAs when it was entered either as an ordinal or as a categorical variable. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of PV resection revealed 0.786 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.685-0.887), which was significantly larger than the extent of pulmonary resection (0.724; 95% CI, 0.637-0.800; p = 0.015).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PV resection plays an important role in the development of postoperative AAs after pulmonary resection and could be used as a good predictor for postoperative AAs.
authors: Department of Thoracic Surgery, First Hospital of Tsinghua University, Beijing, PR China. weishenh@yahoo.com.cn
authors: Shenhai
authors: S
authors: Wei
authors: Youbin
authors: Y
authors: Cui
authors: Mian
authors: M
authors: Xie
authors: Guoqin
authors: G
authors: Wang
authors: Yasushi
authors: Y
authors: Kyutoku
authors: Jintao
authors: J
authors: Tian
authors: Xiaoping
authors: X
authors: Song
authors: Yan
authors: Y
authors: Chen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011667:Pulmonary Veins / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013617:Tachycardia, Supraventricular / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014656:Vascular Surgical Procedures / Q000009:adverse effects*; D055815:Young Adult