Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation and Previous Major Gastrointestinal Bleeding (from the Amplatzer Cardiac Plug Multicenter Registry)

History of major gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding may represent a frequent clinical indication for left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF). This study aims to investigate the procedural safety and long-term outcome of patients with previous major GI bleeding (MGIB) who underwent LAAO. Data from the Amplatzer Cardiac Plug multicenter registry on 1,047 patients were analyzed. Patients with previous MGIB as indication for LAAO were compared with patients without previous MGIB. A total of 151 patients (14.4%) with previous MGIB were identified. Periprocedural major bleeding events were more frequent in patients with previous MGIB (4.0% vs 0.8%, p = 0.001). With an average follow-up of 1.3 years, the observed annual rate of stroke/transient ischemic attack and major bleeding for patients with previous MGIB were 2.1% (61.4% relative reduction according to the Congestive Heart failure, Hypertension, Age ≥75 (doubled), Diabetes, Stroke (doubled), Vascular disease, Age 65-74, and Sex (female) [CHA2DS2-VASc] score) and 4.6% (20.1% relative reduction according to the expected rate based on the Hypertension, Abnormal renal/liver function (1 point each), Stroke, Bleeding history or predisposition, Labile INR, Elderly (>65 years), Drugs/alcohol concomitantly (1 point each) [HAS-BLED] score), respectively. In conclusion, in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation and previous MGIB, LAAO was associated with a low annual rate of stroke/transient ischemic attack. Periprocedural major bleeding events were more frequent in this specific population although the annual major bleeding rate showed a 20.1% relative risk reduction according to the HAS-BLED score.