Usefulness of statins pretreatment for the prevention of postoperative atrial fibrillation in patients undergoing cardiac surgery

Abstract

Background. Postoperative atrial fibrillation (AF) remains the most common arrhythmic complication following cardiac surgery. We performed a meta-analysis based on all currently available randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to confirm the hypothesis that statins pretreatment may lower the risk of postoperative AF in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Methods and results. The published literature was scanned by formal searches of electronic databases up through August 2010. RCTs were eligible for inclusion if they compared preoperative statins treatment versus control in patients scheduled for cardiac surgery and had the data of postoperative AF reported. Pre-specified criteria were met by eight RCTs involving 841 patients. During the follow-up period, 80 of 422 patients (19.0%) in the statins pretreatment group developed postoperative AF, significantly less than 149 of 419 (35.6%) patients assigned to the control group (P < 0.001). Postoperative hospital stay was significantly shortened in patients pretreated with statins compared with the control (P < 0.01). Conclusions. This meta-analysis supports the effectiveness of statins pretreatment on reducing the incidence of postoperative AF in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. © 2011 Informa UK, Ltd.