{"id":4179,"date":"2024-03-13T22:32:08","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T22:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=4179"},"modified":"2024-03-14T13:21:48","modified_gmt":"2024-03-14T13:21:48","slug":"atrial-fibrillation-guidelines-stroke-risk","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/atrial-fibrillation-guidelines-stroke-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Patient Alert: New Atrial Fibrillation Guidelines to Prevent Stroke for Heart Valve Patients"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Atrial fibrillation is the most common sustained <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ahajournals.org\/doi\/10.1161\/CIR.0000000000001193\">heart arrhythmia<\/a> in the United States and across the globe.\u00a0 Approximately <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/atrial-fibrillation\/\">35% of patients with heart valve disease<\/a> will also experience atrial fibrillation which significantly increases their risk of having a stroke. Given the serious and life-threatening nature of AFib, stroke and heart valve disease, the American Heart Association recently published new guidelines for treating atrial fibrillation during open-heart surgery.<\/p>\n<p>I was recently in San Antonio at the 60th Annual Meeting of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons where I met with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Patrick-McCarthy-Chicago-Illinois.php\">Dr. Patrick McCarthy<\/a>, the Executive Director of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, Illinois, to find out more about the new atrial fibrillation guidelines and what they mean for heart valve surgery patients.\u00a0 As you may know, Dr. McCarthy is a heart valve expert that specializes in atrial fibrillation. During his career, Dr. McCarthy has performed over 5,000 heart valve procedures.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/htlUkeGOyTw?si=Pugd3xupcTsLVIa-?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Key Learnings About New Atrial Fibrillation Guidelines<\/h2>\n<p>Dr. McCarthy gave a presentation about the new guidelines at the Society of Thoracic Surgeons annual meeting. Here are the highlights of that presentation that Dr. McCarthy wanted to share with the patients in our community.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/profileImages\/195_129_152.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Patrick McCarthy - AFib &amp; Heart Valve Expert\" width=\"129\" height=\"152\" \/>Dr. Patrick McCarthy<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines were last updated seven years ago in 2017, and since then, there have been several new developments that are important for patients to know. Dr. McCarthy said, \u201cOne of the most critical developments is that if you have atrial fibrillation, you should ask your surgeon if they plan on closing the left atrial appendage during the operation.\u201d The left atrial appendage is a small outpouching at the top of the heart\u2019s atrium where blood clots form and often cause strokes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4186 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/atrial-fibrillation-guidelines-aha-acc.jpg\" alt=\"Atrial Fibrillation Guidelines\" width=\"650\" height=\"365\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cWe timed the removal I did during a valve surgery on Tuesday, and it took 86 seconds to close the appendage,\u201d he told us. The data for successfully removing the left atrial appendage during surgery is overwhelming, and, according to Dr. McCarthy, they now know that the appendage removal will lead to a one-third reduction in the risk of stroke. \u201cThat\u2019s about as good as it gets for something that has almost zero risk, is quick, and has such an impact on the long-term progress of patients,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s such an important breakthrough.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3567 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/left-atrial-appendage-fibrillation.jpg\" alt=\"Left Atrial Appendage\" width=\"650\" height=\"363\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I asked Dr. McCarthy if patients who have had either consistent or intermittent atrial fibrillation should talk to their doctor about the atrial appendage removal as they prepare for a valvular or other open heart procedure, and he said, \u201cAbsolutely. Any history of atrial fibrillation, even with only one episode within the past six months, puts a patient at risk for it to become more regular.\u201d Dr. McCarthy stressed that patients shouldn\u2019t hesitate to speak with their surgeon. \u201cMost of them will know what you\u2019re talking about and know they should close the appendage and will hopefully tell you that,\u201d he said. \u201cThe data is now rock solid that removing the atrial appendage should be done.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4187 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/stroke-risk-reduction-atrial-fibrillation-left-atrial-appendage.jpg\" alt=\"Stroke Risk Reduction for Left Atrial Appendage Closure\" width=\"650\" height=\"362\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Thanks Dr. McCarthy and Northwestern Medicine!<\/h2>\n<p>On behalf of our patients at Heart Valve Surgery, many thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nm.org\/doctors\/1679506554\/patrick-m-mccarthy-md\">Dr. McCarthy<\/a> for sharing his up-to-date knowledge and perspective about these new atrial fibrillation guidelines. We also want to thank <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nm.org\/\">Northwestern Medicine<\/a> for taking great care of our heart valve patients!<\/p>\n<p>Related Links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/atrial-fibrillation\/\">Heart Valve Surgery Learning Center: Atrial Fibrillation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/afib-stroke-risk-reduction\/\">Stroke Risk Reduction for Heart Valve and Atrial Fibrillation Patients<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/dr-patrick-mccarthy.php\">Surgeon Spotlight: Dr. Patrick McCarthy<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Keep on tickin!<br \/>\nAdam<\/p>\n<p>P.S. For the deaf and hard-of-hearing members of our community, I have provided a written transcript below. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"cms.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"class_list":["post-4179","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-atrial-fibrillation-afib"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4179"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4198,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4179\/revisions\/4198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}