To Pace Or Not To Pace! – Prevention Of Atrial Fibrillation After Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a very undesirable, but unfortunately a common arrhythmia following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, occurring in up to 40% of patients. There is an increase in hospital stay and adds to the overall cost of the surgery. Atrial fibrillation occurrence may identify a subset of patients with reduced survival. Prevention of AF therefore would have a significant positive impact on patients undergoing CABG surgery. Based on the mechanism of postoperative AF, it seems likely that overcoming the slow atrial conduction with reduction in the dispersion of atrial refractoriness and suppression of the atrial ectopy should prevent AF. With these considerations atrial overdrive pacing to prevent post CABG AF has been evaluated with a number of randomized, controlled trials