This survey highlights that LAAO is primarily performed for patients with absolute contraindications to oral anticoagulants, with low annual procedure volumes per center and widely varying complication rates.
Low LAAO volumes predominate at most centers; leaves open optimal procedural thresholds, training needs, and outcome standardization.
The purpose of this EP wire survey was to assess clinical practice in relation to the use of left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) devices for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (AF) among members of the European Heart Rhythm Association research network. The average number of performed LAAO was 10.6 per year and most (73%) centres performed ≤10 procedures per year. We found that LAAO was being performed for stroke prevention in AF, for the most common indication being 'the patient has absolute contraindication to long term oral anticoagulants'. Among survey respondents, LAAO procedures are most often performed by interventional cardiologists. Experience varied widely, and this was reflected in the wide range of thromboembolic and procedural (tamponade, bleeding) complications reported by the respondents to this EP wire survey.
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Lip et al. (2012) studied this question.
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