3.4. Mortality after 12-month follow-up
A lower 12-month mortality was observed in several studies, although the difference was not statistically significant. Onorati and colleagues reported higher adjusted 12-month mortality among patients who underwent PVI (6.0%) as compared to Cox-Maze (1.4%) (risk ratio=4.29, 95%CI 0.67-27.0) 25.
Because of the lack of RCTs and limited number of enrolled patients, meta-analysis of RCTs comparing patients who underwent concomitant Cox-Maze and PVI during MV surgery resulted in wide CI/CrI (2-3-fold lower to 2-3-fold higher risk with PVI) (Figure 2A). Considering very wide prediction intervals, there was high uncertainty when comparing the 12-month mortality between the patients who underwent concomitant Cox-Maze and PVI.