Clinical value of modified left atrial plication for patients with rheumatic heart disease complicated by atrial fibrillation

AIM:To investigate the relationship between left atrium (LA) size and atrial fibrillation (AF) and the value of modified left atrial plication in treatment of AF. METHODS: Two hundred and ten rheumatic heart disease (RHD) patients complicated with AF who accepted valve replacement surgery and refused radiofrequency ablation from January 2008 to January 2012 were reviewed. During valve replacement procedure, 71 patients of the 210 RHD patients (experimental group) underwent modified left atrial plication and the remaining patients (conventional group) chose conventional atrial plication. LAD and AF before and after surgery were examined. RESULTS: LAD after surgery in the experimental group was significantly shorter than in the regular group and the recovery rate of AF in the experimental group was significantly higher than in the conventional group. CONCLUSION: Enlarged LA is closely related to the development of AF and modified left atrial plication may effectively diminish the size and volume of LA in treatment of AF.