Risk factors of atrial fibrillation occurring after radical surgery of esophageal carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common complication after radical surgery of esophageal cancer. The aim of this study was to explore AF risk factors after radical surgery of esophageal carcinoma. METHOD: The data of 335 patients with esophageal cancer who were admitted in our hospital from January 2014 to August 2016 for the first time were retrospectively analyzed. We retrieved the papers in some data banks using the search terms including English and Chinese search terms, and obtained 13 factors which were mentioned in more than 6 papers. The 13 factors including age, gender, history of smoking, history of hypertension, history of peripheral vascular disease, history of cardiac stents or angina pectoris, preoperative pulmonary infection, preoperative brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) level, preoperative left ventricular diastolic dysfunction, operative method, lesion location, intraoperative blood transfusion, adhesion between lymph nodes and pericardium, underwent univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: Of the 335 patients with esophageal cancer, 48 had AF within one week after operation. Univariate analysis indicated that the age (OR: 4.89; CI: 2.53-9.47, P: 0.000), gender (OR: 2.26; CI: 1.17-4.37, P: 0.013), history of peripheral vascular disease (OR: 2.29; CI: 1.06-4.92, P: 0.030), history of cardiac stents or angina pectoris (OR: 27.30; CI: 12.44-59.91, P: 0.000), preoperative BNP level (OR: 27.13; CI: 10.97-67.06, P: 0.000), preoperative left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (OR: 2.22; CI: 1.19-4.14, P: 0.012), operative method (OR: 2.09; CI: 1.002-4.380, P: 0.046), intraoperative blood transfusion (OR: 20.24; CI: 8.39-48.82, P: 0.000), and adhesion between lymph nodes and pericardium were risk factors (OR: 2.05; CI: 1.08-3.87, P: 0.024). Furthermore, multivariate analysis displayed that advanced age (OR: 5.044; CI: 1.748-14.554, P: 0.003), male (OR: 6.161; CI: 2.143-17.715, P: 0.001), history of cardiac stents or angina pectoris (OR: 48.813; CI: 13.674-174.246, P: 0.000), preoperative BNP > 100 (OR: 41.515; CI: 9.380-183.732, P: 0.000), open surgery (OR: 3.357; CI: 1.026-10.983, P: 0.045), intraoperative blood transfusion (OR: 58.404; CI: 10.777-316.509, P: 0.000), and adhesion between lymph nodes and pericardium (OR: 3.954; CI: 1.364-11.459, P: 0.011) were risk factors which could increase the incidence of postoperative AF. CONCLUSION: We should pay attention to the above risk factors in order to reduce the incidence of postoperative AF.