Left atrial appendage occlusion for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation: recent evidence, catheter ablation, and future trials.

Authors

Athanasios Samaras, Devi G Nair, Jens Erik Nielsen-Kudsk, Apostolos Tzikas

Published in

Expert review of cardiovascular therapy. Oct 21, 2026. Epub Oct 21, 2026.

Abstract

Oral anticoagulation (OAC) remains the standard for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (AF), but bleeding, non-persistence and thromboembolism despite treatment create important unmet needs. Catheter ablation and left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) address distinct mechanisms and do not reproduce systemic anticoagulation.
This narrative review covers randomized anticoagulation-withdrawal studies after ablation, trials and pooled evidence on LAAO, patients unable to sustain anticoagulation, procedural imaging and healing, post-implant antithrombotic therapy, and future trial design. Targeted searches of PubMed/MEDLINE and ClinicalTrials.gov were supplemented by citation screening and review of contemporary congress reports, for evidence spanning 2005-10 October 2026.
The completed randomized LAAO programme mainly tests substitution where OAC remains feasible. Precision source control should be investigated as rescue when OAC cannot be sustained and as a potential dose-sparing complement in selected patients, while addressing residual ischemic risk and verifying durable closure.

PMID:
42908057
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 23 Oct 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.