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J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2007;133:775-779
© 2007 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery

General Thoracic Surgery

Video-assisted thoracic surgery does not reduce the incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation after pulmonary lobectomy

^a Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
^b Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY.

Received for publication July 18, 2006; revisions received September 19, 2006; accepted for publication September 29, 2006.

^_* Reprint requests: Bernard J. Park, MD, Thoracic Service, Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, Room C-867, New York, NY 10021. (Email: parkb{at}mskcc.org).

Objective: The objective was to define the incidence of atrial fibrillation after video-assisted thoracic surgery lobectomy and determine whether video-assisted thoracic surgery reduces atrial fibrillation rate compared with thoracotomy.

Methods: With the use of a single-institution database of patients who underwent lobectomy for clinical stage I non–small cell lung cancer, 389 patients were identified who were in sinus rhythm preoperatively and received no prophylactic antiarrhythmics. Patients undergoing video-assisted thoracic surgery were age and gender matched with those undergoing thoracotomy.

Results: After matching, 122 patients undergoing video-assisted thoracic surgery and 122 patients undergoing thoracotomy were eligible for analysis. Patients undergoing video-assisted thoracic surgery had a higher preoperative diffusion capacity (92% ± 28% vs 80% ± 18% predicted, P = .001) and a lower rate of induction chemotherapy (5/122, 4% vs 11/122, 11%, P = .05) than patients undergoing thoracotomy. Atrial fibrillation occurred in 12% of patients (15/122) undergoing video-assisted thoracic surgery and 16% of patients (20/122) undergoing thoracotomy (P = .36). Overall, complications were lower in the video-assisted thoracic surgery group (17.2% vs 27.9%, P = .046). Patients with atrial fibrillation were older in both video-assisted thoracic surgery (73 ± 7 years vs 66 ± 9 years, P = .002) and thoracotomy groups (72 ± 7 years vs 66 ± 10 years, P = .005). Length of stay for patients with atrial fibrillation was greater in both video-assisted thoracic surgery (6.0 ± 1.5 days vs 4.7 ± 2.5 days, P = .01) and thoracotomy groups (9.2 ± 4.3 days vs 6.8 ± 3.6 days, P = .03).

Conclusions: Regardless of surgical approach, atrial fibrillation after lobectomy occurred with equal frequency. This supports the theory that autonomic denervation and stress-mediated neurohumoral mechanisms are responsible for the pathogenesis of postoperative atrial fibrillation. Prophylaxis regimens against atrial fibrillation should be the same for either operative approach.

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