Left Atrial Appendage Closure – The WATCHMAN Device

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most common arrhythmias seen in clinical cardiology practice. Patients with non-valvular AF have an approximately 5-fold increase in the risk of stroke, with an exponential increase with advancing age. Cardioembolic strokes carry a high mortality risk. Although...

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Main Authors:	Akinapelli, Abhilash, Bansal, Ojas, Chen, Jack P., Pflugfelder, Alex, Gordon, Nicole, Stein, Kenneth, Huibregtse, Barbara, Hou, Dongming
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Bentham Science Publishers 2015
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4774639/

id	pubmed-4774639
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-47746392016-11-01 Left Atrial Appendage Closure – The WATCHMAN Device Akinapelli, Abhilash Bansal, Ojas Chen, Jack P. Pflugfelder, Alex Gordon, Nicole Stein, Kenneth Huibregtse, Barbara Hou, Dongming Article Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most common arrhythmias seen in clinical cardiology practice. Patients with non-valvular AF have an approximately 5-fold increase in the risk of stroke, with an exponential increase with advancing age. Cardioembolic strokes carry a high mortality risk. Although the potential of warfarin to reduce systemic embolization in AF patients is well established, its use is difficult due to narrow therapeutic windows and additional complications (e.g. increased risk of bleeding), especially for aging patients. Therefore, alternative means of treatment to reduce stroke risk in these patients are needed. The left atrial appendage is the major source of thrombus formation in patients with non-valvular AF. The WATCHMAN device (Boston Scientific, MA) is a percutaneous left atrial appendage closure device which has been tested prospectively in multiple randomized trials. It offers a new stroke risk reduction option for high-risk patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation who are seeking an alternative to long-term warfarin therapy. Based on the robust WATCHMAN clinical program which consists of numerous studies, with more than 2,400 patients and nearly 6,000 patient-years of follow-up, the WATCHMAN LAAC Device is approved by FDA. In this article we reviewed the preclinical studies and clinical trials, as well as the next generation of the device. Bentham Science Publishers 2015-11 2015-11 /pmc/articles/PMC4774639/ http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1573403X11666150805115822 Text en © 2015 Bentham Science Publishers http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestrictive use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Akinapelli, Abhilash Bansal, Ojas Chen, Jack P. Pflugfelder, Alex Gordon, Nicole Stein, Kenneth Huibregtse, Barbara Hou, Dongming
spellingShingle	Akinapelli, Abhilash Bansal, Ojas Chen, Jack P. Pflugfelder, Alex Gordon, Nicole Stein, Kenneth Huibregtse, Barbara Hou, Dongming Left Atrial Appendage Closure – The WATCHMAN Device
author_facet	Akinapelli, Abhilash Bansal, Ojas Chen, Jack P. Pflugfelder, Alex Gordon, Nicole Stein, Kenneth Huibregtse, Barbara Hou, Dongming
author_sort	Akinapelli, Abhilash
title	Left Atrial Appendage Closure – The WATCHMAN Device
title_short	Left Atrial Appendage Closure – The WATCHMAN Device
title_full	Left Atrial Appendage Closure – The WATCHMAN Device
title_fullStr	Left Atrial Appendage Closure – The WATCHMAN Device
title_full_unstemmed	Left Atrial Appendage Closure – The WATCHMAN Device
title_sort	left atrial appendage closure – the watchman device
description	Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most common arrhythmias seen in clinical cardiology practice. Patients with non-valvular AF have an approximately 5-fold increase in the risk of stroke, with an exponential increase with advancing age. Cardioembolic strokes carry a high mortality risk. Although the potential of warfarin to reduce systemic embolization in AF patients is well established, its use is difficult due to narrow therapeutic windows and additional complications (e.g. increased risk of bleeding), especially for aging patients. Therefore, alternative means of treatment to reduce stroke risk in these patients are needed. The left atrial appendage is the major source of thrombus formation in patients with non-valvular AF. The WATCHMAN device (Boston Scientific, MA) is a percutaneous left atrial appendage closure device which has been tested prospectively in multiple randomized trials. It offers a new stroke risk reduction option for high-risk patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation who are seeking an alternative to long-term warfarin therapy. Based on the robust WATCHMAN clinical program which consists of numerous studies, with more than 2,400 patients and nearly 6,000 patient-years of follow-up, the WATCHMAN LAAC Device is approved by FDA. In this article we reviewed the preclinical studies and clinical trials, as well as the next generation of the device.
publisher	Bentham Science Publishers
publishDate	2015
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4774639/
_version_	1613546173849665536

Left Atrial Appendage Closure – The WATCHMAN Device

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