الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is a very common arrhythmia following open heart surgery. AF takes place when an irregular stimulation is observed in the atria with no specific direction. In other words, the muscular cells of atrium are simulated irregularly. In AF, there is no regular atrial contraction, which means that atrium will have no appropriate time for contraction and remains practically stationary. As a result, atrium fails to completely evacuate blood to ventricles so the cardiac output of the heart will decrease. At the same time, ventricular beats that follow the pattern of atrium will also become partially unworkable and irregular. Finally, this immobile blood in the atrium (stasis) will result in intra-atrial thrombus that may propagate as an embolus and so the problems associated with it. In recent times, more cases of postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) are observed because of higher number of heart operations performed which have various causes such as an increase in the number of elderly people. With the increase in the elderly people population size, cases of AF also increase. The number of POAF cases following revascularization and any valve replacement varies significantly, and different studies have reported a frequency of 3% up to 90%. Although POAF is mostly temporary and causes a few complications, there are some cases of severe and serious complications include high risk of renal failure caused by pulmonary artery embolism. |