Post-Procedural Dabigatran Versus Interrupted Warfarin Therapy Following Catheter Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation

Patients undergoing catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF) are at a higher risk of thromboembolic events post-procedure and therefore require therapeutic anticoagulation after ablation. Anticoagulation strategies include performing the procedure on or off therapeutic warfarin, though the latter approach requires post-procedure bridging therapy with low molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) until a therapeutic INR is achieved. The purpose of this study is to compare the safety and efficacy of post-ablation dabigatran as compared to warfarin with LMWH bridging.

We performed a single-center retrospective analysis of consecutive patients who underwent catheter ablation for AF between January 2010 and December 2012 and received either post-procedure warfarin with a LMWH bridge or dabigatran. Warfarin was started the night of ablation; LMWH was started the next morning and continued until the INR was ≥ 2.0. Dabigatran was started the morning post-ablation.

The analysis included 324 patients. Of these, mean age was 60 ± 9 years, 78% were male, 81% had CHADS₂ scores of 0 or 1, and 181 (56%) received dabigatran post-ablation. Patients who received dabigatran had lower CHADS₂ scores and were more likely to be in NYHA Class I. At 30-days post-procedure, there were 0 thromboembolic or bleeding complications in the dabigatran group versus 4 (2.8%) in the warfarin group (p=0.037). There were no deaths in either group at 30 days post-ablation.

Post-ablation dabigatran appears safe and efficacious compared to an interrupted warfarin strategy with LMWH bridging.