Impact of Prophylactic Amiodarone on Length of Hospital Stay, Stroke, and Atrial Fibrillation After Cardiothoracic Surgery

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of prophylactic amiodarone on length of stay (LOS), postoperative stroke, and postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF). DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Hartford Hospital, Hartford, Connecticut. PATIENTS: Two thousand forty-six patients who underwent cardiothoracic surgery from February 1998-October 2003 (186 received amiodarone, 1860 were controls). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Patients receiving any of the prophylactic amiodarone regimens used in the Atrial Fibrillation Suppression Trials (AFIST) I and II were matched (1:10 matching) for age, valvular surgery, history of atrial fibrillation, sex, beta-blocker intolerance, and preoperative digoxin therapy with patients not receiving amiodarone prophylaxis. The AFIST regimens consisted of oral amiodarone 6 g over 6 days and 7 g over 10 days, beginning on preoperative days 1 and 5, respectively, or a hybrid intravenous and oral loading regimen delivering amiodarone 7 g over 5 days. Mean+/-SD age of the patients was 68.9+/-9.8 years, 75% were men, and 21% had undergone valvular surgery. Patients receiving prophylactic amiodarone had a shorter LOS (8.6+/-6.0 days) than controls (11.6+/-14.0 days, p=0.003) and a reduced frequency of POAF (23.1% vs 29.9%, p=0.05). Frequency of stroke was not significantly affected (2.2% vs 2.7% in the amiodarone vs control groups, p=0.61). CONCLUSION: Use of the prophylactic amiodarone regimens from the AFIST trials reduced LOS by 3.0 days and frequency of POAF by 22.7%.