Intracranial bleeding and associated outcomes in atrial fibrillation patients undergoing percutaneous left atrial appendage occlusion: Insights from National Inpatient Sample 2016-2020

BACKGROUND Percutaneous left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) has proved to be a safer alternative for long-term anticoagu-lation; however, patients with a history of intracranial bleeding were excluded from large randomized clinical trials.OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine outcomes in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients with a history of intracranial bleeding undergoing percutaneous LAAO.METHODS National Inpatient Sample and International Classifica-tion of Diseases, Tenth Revision, codes were used to identify patients with AF who underwent LAAO during the years 201622020. Patients were stratified based on a history of intracra-nial bleeding vs not. The outcomes assessed in our study included complications, in-hospital mortality, and resource utilization.RESULT A total of 89,300 LAAO device implantations were studied. Approximately 565 implantations (0.6%) occurred in patients with a history of intracranial bleed. History of intracranial bleeding was associated with a higher prevalence of overall complications and in-patient mortality in crude analysis. In the multivariate model adjusted for potential confounders, intracranial bleeding was found to be independently associated with in-patient mortality (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 4.27; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.68-10.82); overall complications (aOR 1.74; 95% CI 1.36-2.24); prolonged length of stay (aOR 2.38; 95% CI 1.95-2.92); and increased cost of hospitalization (aOR 1.28; 95% CI 1.08-1.52) after percutaneous LAAO device implantation.CONCLUSION A history of intracranial bleeding was associated with adverse outcomes after percutaneous LAAO. These data, if proven in a large randomized study, can have important clinical consequences in terms of patient selection for LAAO devices.