Does antithrombotic treatment prevent device-related thrombosis and mitigate bleeding risk in patients after left atrial appendage closure?
This review summarizes current evidence on antithrombotic strategies following left atrial appendage closure to balance the risks of device-related thrombosis and bleeding.
Left atrial appendage closure is an alternative to chronic oral anticoagulation to prevent embolic events related to nonvalvular atrial fibrillation. After device implantation, antithrombotic treatment is prescribed to prevent device-related thrombosis, a dreadful complication associated with an increased risk of ischemic events. However, the optimal antithrombotic treatment after left atrial appendage closure, effective on both device-related thrombus prevention and bleeding risk mitigation, remains to be determined. In more than 10 years experience with left atrial appendage closure, a wide range of antithrombotic treatments have been used, mostly in observational studies. In this review, we analyzed the body of evidence for each antithrombotic regimen after left atrial appendage closure to provide tools to guide the physician choice and describe future perspectives in the field.
Mesnier et al. (2023) studied this question.