• Cevdet Uğur Koçoğullari, Mustafa Emmiler, Ercument Ayva, Taner Sasirtan, Naim Eren, and Ahmet Cekirdekci.
• Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Medical Faculty, Kocatepe University, Afyon, Turkey. cevdetkoc@hotmail.com
• Heart Surg Forum. 2008 Jan 1;11(3):E159-63.

BackgroundWe investigated the effects of preoperative administration of beta-blockers on the incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF) after cardiothoracic surgery and the resulting morbidity and mortality.MethodsWe retrospectively evaluated 181 patients who underwent operations between May 2004 and December 2007. We divided the patients into 2 groups according to their preoperative use beta-blockers. Group A (n = 89) consisted of patients who did not receive beta-blockers, and group B (n = 92) consisted of patients who received 50 mg metoprolol succinate daily. All patients underwent on-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) via sternotomy.ResultsAtrial sizes and the baseline clinical and laboratory data were similar for the 2 groups. The 2 groups were also similar with respect to the numbers of grafts per patient, preoperative ejection fractions, cross-clamp times, cardiopulmonary bypass times, and postoperative inotrope use (P > .05). AF occurred in 39 (21.5%) of the 181 patients after the operation. Postoperative AF occurred in 30 (33.7%) of the group A patients and in 9 patients (9.7%) in group B (P < .05).ConclusionPostoperative AF increases the rates of morbidity and mortality and the length of hospital stay after CABG. The prophylactic use of beta-blockers decreases the rate of postoperative AF and thus AF-related complications.

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