14th International Congress
THE "NEW FRONTIERS"
OF ARRHYTHMIAS 2000

Jan. 29 - Feb. 5, 2000
Marilleva, Trento, Italy

RT-99

Bidirectional transoesophageal cardioversion in patients after CABG in acute postoperative period

Krzysztof Poleszak, El˙zbieta Krawczyk*, Andrzej Kutarski, Janusz Sta˙zka*.
Dept. of Cardiology, *Dept. of Cardiosurgery, University Medical Academy, Lublin, Poland

Atrial fibrillation is probably the most common arrhythmia following coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery. The incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation ranges from 5 to 40%¹ and can lead to embolic incidences or hemodynamic decompensation². At the same time the arrhythmia increases costs of hospitalisation³. Pharmacological conversion to sinus rhythm is the typical as a first step however the efficacy of antiarrhythmic agents not exceeds 80%^4,5. Simultaneously electrical cardioversion is the treatment of choice in unstable patients⁶. Unfortunately repetitive transchest cardioversion with high energy remains doubtful because the shock-induced damage of myocardium still has not been excluded⁷.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the usefulness and effectiveness of transoesophageal bidirectional DC cardioversion in patients after CABG.