• Antonios Kourliouros, Oswaldo Valencia, Morteza Tavakkoli Hosseini, Manuel Mayr, Mazin Sarsam, John Camm, and Marjan Jahangiri.
• Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, St George's Hospital, London, United Kingdom.
• J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg. 2011 Jan 1; 141 (1): 244-8.

ObjectiveThe preventative effect of statins on postoperative atrial fibrillation has been hypothesized. However, all studies to date have examined patients who did not receive statins before their further allocation to treatment or no treatment. Because guidelines recommend the routine use of statins in patients with coronary artery disease, we set out to examine the effect of intensive statin pretreatment versus continuation of usual statin dose on atrial fibrillation after cardiac surgery.MethodsPatients receiving routine statin treatment and undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery or aortic valve replacement with no history of atrial fibrillation or antiarrhythmic medication were randomized to receive atorvastatin 80 mg or atorvastatin 10 mg for 7 days before surgery in a single-blind fashion. The primary end point was the development of postoperative atrial fibrillation during hospital stay.ResultsA total of 104 consecutive patients were included. Postoperative atrial fibrillation occurred in 33 patients (32.4%). No significant differences were found in demographics, medical history, or intraoperative variables between treatment groups, with the exception of higher rate of β-blocker use in the atorvastatin 10 mg group (75% vs 53%, P = .002) and previous myocardial infarction (62% vs 42%, P = .049). The incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation was lower in the atorvastatin 80 mg group when compared with the atorvastatin 10 mg group, but this difference did not reach statistical significance (29% vs 36%, P = .43).ConclusionsHigh-dose atorvastatin for 7 days before cardiac surgery conferred a nonsignificant reduction in postoperative atrial fibrillation when compared with a low-dose regimen. A larger study would be necessary to confirm the beneficial effect of high-dose statins in this setting.Copyright © 2011 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

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