Prophylactic Amidarone Treatment for Atrial Fibrillation After Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery

•Preventive strategies for postoperative atrial fibrillation are not universally accepted, even with the proven benefits shown in randomized, controlled trials.•Patient with prophylactic amiodarone therapy developed significantly less postoperative atrial fibrillation than those without treatment (17% vs 25.9%, P = .01), with relative and absolute risk reductions of 0.7% and 8.9%, respectively.•Postoperative oral amiodarone therapy is simple to administer and may be an important adjunct therapy to post‒coronary artery bypass surgery care.•This study demonstrated the feasibility of applying knowledge from randomized, controlled trials into positive patient outcomes for prevention of postoperative atrial fibrillation.

In this study we performed a retrospective chart review to evaluate the efficacy of short-term postoperative oral amiodarone therapy on postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) after coronary artery bypass surgery. The incidence of POAF in 372 patients (60.6%) without prophylactic amiodarone therapy was compared with that in 240 patients (39.4%) receiving the medication immediately after the surgery. Patients who received prophylactic amiodarone developed significantly less POAF than those without prophylactic treatment (17.0% versus 25.9%, P = .01), with relative and absolute risk reductions of 0.7% and 8.9%, respectively. Postoperative oral amiodarone therapy is simple to administer and may be a valuable adjunct therapy for patients after coronary artery bypass surgery.