Left atrial appendage
From Standard of Care
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Most thrombi in atrial fibrillation arise in the left atrial appendage.
Commonly removed during valve or arrhythmia surgery and for selected patients undergoing cardiac valve surgery to prevent strokes.
In a prospective study of 900 patients-years of study of individuals with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation randomly assigned to receive warfarin or the Watchman device (allows non surgical closure of the left atrial appendage) plus short-time warfarin: the rate of stroke, cardiovascular events, death and systemic embolism was reduced by 32% in the Watchman group compared to conventional therapy (Embolic Protection in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation trial).
