Left atrial appendage occlusion in atrial fibrillation for stroke prevention: A systemic review

•We compared efficacy and safety of left atrial appendage occlusion in atrial fibrillation for stroke prevention.•Both surgical and percutaneous left atrial appendage occlusion were compared with warfarin.•All included studies are high qualified randomized controlled studies.

BackgroundAtrial fibrillation (AF) is an arrthymia characterized by increased risk of ventricle arrthymias and thromboembolism especially ischemic stroke. Most thrombus originated in the left atrial appendage, thus left atrial occlusion (LAAO) may be an effective alternative for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation.ObjectiveTo assess the effect and safety of left atrial occlusion for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation.Methods and resultsWe searched Pub Med, CENTRAL in The Cochrane Library, Embase, CBM-Disk, CNKI for published trials, ClinicalTrials.gov, ISI Proceedings for conference abstracts, and WHO International Clinical Trial registration Platform for ongoing studies. The search results were extracted, and then the quality of included studies was assessed. By RevMan 5.3, meta analysis was used if there was low heterogeneity. Three randomized controlled clinical trials involving 1165 participants were included (percutaneous 1114 in 2 trials, surgical 51 in 1 trial). The current data suggest that left atrial occlusion may be as efficacious as warfarin in stroke prevention (RR 0.78 [0.33, 1.84]) and mortality reduction (RR 0.68 [0.40, 1.16]) for AF.ConclusionIn contrast to warfarin left atrial occlusion with Watchman device may have the same effectivity in stroke reduction. Surgical LAAO may also get positive outcomes compared with warfarin, but owing to the small sample size the evidence is less powerful. Total outcomes of percutaneous and surgical LAAO support this approach.