Editorial - June 2021

Dear Members,

In this newsletter we want to present you three recent publications. The first one, the LAAOS III trial, published in the NEJM in May 2021 investigated the impact of concomitant occlusion of the left atrial appendage in patients with atrial fibrillation undergoing cardiac surgery.  In this multicentre, randomized trial with 4770 patients the risk for stroke or systemic embolism could be significantly reduced in the occlusion group (4.8% vs. 7.0%; p=0.001).

The second publication by Royse AG et al from Australia, in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery in June 2021, investigated the impact of total arterial revascularisation either with bilateral IMA or IMA plus radial artery on long term outcome. In this study with a follow up to 15 years no significant difference could be found between the BIMA group and the group undergoing revascularisation with a radial artery instead of the second mammary artery.

The third manuscript by McCarthy PM et al published in the JTCVS in June 2021 investigated the impact of atrial fibrillation on late tricuspid regurgitation in patients undergoing mitral valve surgery. The main take home message of this study is that patients presenting with atrial fibrillation at time of surgery there is a significant risk of late tricuspid regurgitation despite concomitant AF ablation. The authors conclude that it is reasonable to consider tricuspid annuloplasty in these patients.

On behalf of the Working Group nucleus,

Martin Czerny, Chairperson 2020-2022 and Roman Gottardi Communication Coordinator 2020-2022