Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion
Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion
LAA has long been recognised as the site of clot formation in a majority of patients with non-valvular AF. Weiss and colleagues proposed the theory that clot formation occurs in LAA in patients with rheumatic mitral stenosis. Madden then reported the first two cases of surgical LAA removal in patients with rheumatic mitral stenosis and AF. Blackshear and Odell, in their review of 23 studies in which LAA was examined, found that 222 (17%) of 1288 non-valvular patients with AF had LAA thrombus and 201 (91%) of these were localised to LAA.
Rationale
LAA has long been recognised as the site of clot formation in a majority of patients with non-valvular AF. Weiss and colleagues proposed the theory that clot formation occurs in LAA in patients with rheumatic mitral stenosis. Madden then reported the first two cases of surgical LAA removal in patients with rheumatic mitral stenosis and AF. Blackshear and Odell, in their review of 23 studies in which LAA was examined, found that 222 (17%) of 1288 non-valvular patients with AF had LAA thrombus and 201 (91%) of these were localised to LAA.
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