You are currently viewing a new version of our website. To view the old version click .
Clinics and Practice
  • Clinics and Practice is published by MDPI from Volume 11 Issue 1 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher in Open Access under a CC-BY (or CC-BY-NC-ND) licence, and they are hosted by MDPI on mdpi.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with PAGEPress.
  • Case Report
  • Open Access

18 January 2017

Non-Pharmacologic Approach to Prevent Embolization in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation in Whom Anticoagulation Is Contraindicated

and
1
Department of Internal Medicine, Easton Hospital, 2040 Lehigh Street, apt 506, Easton, PA 18042, USA
2
Department of Cardiology, Easton Hospital and Clinical Medicine, Drexel University College of Medicine, Easton, PA, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Abstract

Ischemic stroke is the most common complication of atrial fibrillation (AF). Anticoagulation therapy reduces the risk of systemic embolization in almost all patients with AF irrespective of the type of AF (paroxysmal, persistent or permanent). But, all patients are not suitable candidates for systemic anticoagulation mainly due to the risk of bleeding. Left atrial appendage closure (LAAC) devices have been found to be very effective non-pharmacologic alternative therapy for such patients. There are various types of LAAC devices but United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) have approved only Watchman device. Initially, bigger medical centers in the US had started the insertion of Watchman device but with improving procedural techniques and exciting outcomes, even the community-based hospitals have started to embrace this therapy. We have presented the first three cases of Watchman device placement performed in our hospital and discussed about the indications for placement of LAAC devices .We have also reviewed their efficacy individually.

Article Metrics

Citations

Article Access Statistics

Multiple requests from the same IP address are counted as one view.