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Patients who develop postoperative atrial fibrillation (AF) after noncardiac surgery have higher risk for stroke and death than do patients who do not develop postop AF. Whether patients with postop AF (occurring within 30 days of surgery) have similar outcomes as do other patients with AF is unknown. In this cohort study from Mayo Clinic, investigators assessed outcomes in 4200 patients with new-onset AF, 550 of whom developed AF postoperatively after noncardiac surgery.
Half of patients with postop AF developed it within 2 days after surgery, and >80% developed it within 1 week. Compared with patients who developed AF unrelated to surgery (i.e., nonoperative AF), patients with postop AF had similar rates of stroke or transient ischemic att…