New research suggests that women who develop postoperative atrial fibrillation (poAF) after cardiac surgery are at greater risk of death than men. A study led by Mass General Brigham researchers found that women may have protective factors against the development of poAF, but once it develops, they may be more vulnerable to its associated long-term morbidities. The researchers suggest that more vigilant monitoring and long-term follow-up care for women who develop poAF is needed.
Their results are published in JAMA Network Open . "Our goal is to understand the protective factors that may reduce the incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation in women, as well as the reasons for their heightened vulnerability once this complication occurs, all to improve patient outcomes and tailor care strategies," said lead author Sergey Karamnov, MD, a cardiothoracic anesthesiologist in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "The sex-based disparities we uncover likely represent a larger issue that health care systems must work to address, and the first step in doing so is to look for these sex-based differences in outcomes.
" It is already known that female patients face higher risks of complications and mortality following heart surgery . However, the impact of sex on poAF, the most common complication after cardiac surgery associated with increased long-term mortality, has up until this point remained unclear. The new study wo.