Objective: To determine the frequency of reversion of atrial fibrillation (AF) to sinus rhythm (SR) following surgical treatment of patients with mitral stenosis (MS) and identify likely favourable or unfavourable factors to this event. Material and Methods: Retrospective case control study, analysing 53 patients with MS, without other valvar diseases, undergoing surgical correction. The baseline characteristics of the studied population were: women: 71.7%; mean age: 42.4 years; functional class III: 67.9%; mean mitral valve area: 0.92 cm²; mean left atrial size: 56.0 mm; rhythm before the surgery: SR: 51.0% and AF: 49.0%. Patients were divided in two groups according to their late postoperative rhythm: group I included the patients with SR after the surgery and group II were formed by those with AF in the postoperative period. Results: Ten (18.9%) patients out of all patients; 38.5% in respect to those with AF presented reversion of AF to SR and 2 of them (3.8% out off all patients; 7.4% out of those with SR) presented degeneration of rhythm from SR to AF. There was statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) between the groups only in respect to variable age (p = 0.0456). Conclusions: The MS correction surgery presents unsatisfactory results in respect to reversion from AF to SR, suggesting the necessity of another associated surgical proceeding to restore the SR. Many studies tried to identify the predisposing factors to the permanence or to the development of AF after the surgery, but they got contradictory results. In the present study, only the variable advanced age presented association with AF.
Mitral valve stenosis; Atrial fibrillation; Heart rate
