Age and neo-adjuvant chemotherapy increase the risk of atrial fibrillation following oesophagectomy

OBJECTIVES Atrial tachyarrhythmias occur in up to 25% of patients after major thoracic surgery. We examined risk factors for new-onset atrial fibrillation (AF) following oesophagectomy in an attempt to guide prophylactic use of anti-arrhythmic strategies. METHODS Data were extracted from a database of patients who underwent oesophagectomy between 1991 and 2009. Patients with pre-operative arrhythmias were excluded leaving 997 patients for further analysis. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify factors predicting AF, and receiver operating characteristic curves were generated from a model using these predictors. Statistical significance was reflected in a P-value of