Introduction
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common preoperative arrhythmia in patients
undergoing cardiac surgery. Concomitant surgical AF ablation with
cardiac surgery is reasonable in selected patients with AF undergoing
other cardiac surgical procedures due to valvular or coronary artery
diseases.1 Surgical AF ablation has been recognized to
reduce AF-related symptoms, improve hemodynamic parameters, and reduce
thromboembolic risk by restoring and maintaining sinus rhythm
(SR).2-4 Nevertheless, approximately 40% of all
patients undergoing surgical AF ablation have postoperative
AF.5,6 Catheter ablation is a highly successful
procedure in eliminating atrial tachyarrhythmias (ATAs) and maintaining
SR after surgical AF ablation. A blanking period of three months has
been universally accepted after catheter AF ablation, and AF recurrence
during the blanking period is not considered a treatment failure nor is
it associated with long-term AF recurrence.7
However, little is known about early recurrence of atrial
tachyarrhythmia (ERAT), which is defined as recurrence within the first
three months after surgical AF ablation. There is currently a lack of
studies evaluating the optimal blanking period after surgical ablation.
Therefore, we aimed to investigate the incidence and significance of
ERAT after surgical AF ablation as a predictor of late recurrence (LR)
and to evaluate the optimal blanking period after surgical AF ablation
using receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis.