Quality of life after surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation

• Main Authors: V. V Bazylev, E. V Nemchenko, G. N Abramova, V. A Karnakhin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Concilium Medicum 2017-09-01
• Series: КардиоСоматика
• Subjects: cox-maze iv; quality of life; atrial fibrillation; surgical treatment; antiarrythmic therapy
• Online Access: https://cardiosomatics.orscience.ru/2221-7185/article/viewFile/45329/pdf

Aim - to evaluate quality of life (QOL) of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) after surgical treatment of arrhythmia during open heart surgery. Materials and methods. The retrospective single-center randomized study involved 71 patients whose QOL was analyzed after the Cox-Maze IV surgery and mitral valve correction. The follow-up period was from 6 months to 6 years. The study included 35 (49%) women and 36 (51%) men, whose average age was 61±12.3 at the time of surgical treatment. AF duration was 47.6±22.3 months. The left atrium was dilated to 60.9±10.5 mm. Functional class II of heart failure (NYHA) included 25 patients (35%), functional class III - 46 patients (65%). The control group included 48 patients with AF who had not got the ‘labyrinth’ procedure performed during the surgical treatment. There were no statistically significant differences between the main clinical and demographic characteristics in reference to the groups. All patients had a long-term persistent AF. The SF-36 questionnaire was used for studying QOL. Results. 47 (66%) patients in the experimental group kept a sinus rhythm within 6 years. The patients of the RFA-group had a higher rate of vitality (NBS VT 54.5±8.2, p=0.03, SBS VT 54.1±8.5, p=0.001) and social functioning (SBS SF 45.0±10.2, p=0.001), with regard to other scales there were no statistically significant differences. The presence of AF after surgical treatment increased the probability of a low QOL in the long term. Conclusions. QOL after surgical treatment of mitral valve disease and AF is significantly higher with regard to vitality and social functioning. The physical component of health is significantly reduced as compared with that in the general population, but the characteristics of QOL in accordance with other scales approach the general indices. The presence of AF after surgical treatment increases the probability of a lower QOL in the long term.