Analysis of postoperative new-onset atrial fibrillation in critically ill patients undergoing noncardiac surgery

Objective To determine the incidence of postoperative new-onset atrial fibrillation (NAF) in critically ill patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery, and to analyze the factors associated with atrial fibrillation. Methods This was an observational study. The clinical data of adult patients, age ≥18 years suffering from atrial fibrillation, with in 14 days after noncardiac surgery, who were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of Peking University First Hospital from January 2011 to December 2013, were analyzed. Results There were 71(2.7%) patients suffering from NAF during 14 days after an operation, and the incidence became higher with age. Incidence rate of NAF was 6.1% in patients undergone thoracic operations, which was significantly higher than that in non-thoracic surgery patients (P=0.001), and the incidence rate of NAF in patients with emergency operation was 8.1%, which was significantly higher than that in the patients undergone selective surgery (P