Gender-specific differences in patients who underwent left atrial appendage closure

Aim: We aimed to study gender-specific differences in patients who underwent left atrial appendage closure (LAAC). Materials & methods: A total of 201 consecutive patients who underwent LAAC were enrolled. The EQ-5D-3L questionnaire was employed before and 3 months post-LAAC to study the quality of life. Results: Women had a higher score for Anxiety/Depression before implantation. Three months after LAAC, both groups showed a significant improvement in mobility, self-care and usual activities. The female gender had a significant improvement in health state 3 months after implantation than their male counterparts. Conclusion: Our data shows an improvement in mobility, self-care, usual activities and the overall health state in all patients after LAAC. This potential improvement, most likely caused by the discontinuation of oral anticoagulants, should be considered an indication for LAAC. Lay abstract Atrial fibrillation is the most common persistent cardiac arrhythmia that affects millions worldwide with far-reaching sociomedical consequences. Oral anticoagulation is the current gold standard in stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation. Because of bleeding complications, left atrial appendage closure (LAAC), as an alternative therapy, has excellent clinical significance today. We studied the gender-specific differences in the quality of life in patients who underwent LAAC. The results of our study show a significant improvement in the overall health status in women 3 months after LAAC compared with their male counterparts. We believe that the interruption of the oral anticoagulants was the reason for this improvement. For this reason, the LAAC may be considered as a stroke prevention method in this group of patients.