Aortic knob width as a novel predictor of postoperative atrial fibrillation following off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting

The aim of this study was to determine whether aortic knob width (AKW) was related to the development of postoperative atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients undergoing off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Between July 2017 and June 2019, a total of 453 patients undergoing isolated off-pump CABG were enrolled to this retrospective observational cohort study. The patients were divided into two groups; as AF group (n=102) and non-AF group (n=351). The groups were compared with regard to preoperative demographics and clinical characteristics, intraoperative data, and postoperative outcomes, and then a multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed in order to determine the independent predictors of postoperative AF. The incidence of postoperative AF in our study population was found as 22.5% (n=102/453). The median age and AKW, and the frequencies of hypertension and chronic renal dysfunction were significantly higher in patients in AF group than in non-AF group. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that age and AKW were the independent predictors of postoperative AF. The analysis yielded that the risk of POAF development increased by 5.2% with each one-year increase in patient age [OR 1.0520 with 95% CI= (1.0214, 1.0835), p

Key words: Aortic knob width, predictor, atrial fibrillation, off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting