Introduction: Left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) has been recognized as an alternative to preventing thromboembolic stroke in selected patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF). However, limited evidence exists regarding the safety of LAAO in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). This meta-analysis aims to evaluate the safety and efficacy of LAAO in CKD patients. Methods: We conducted a comprehensive search across various electronic databases, including PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library, to identify relevant studies comparing the outcomes of CKD and non-CKD patients undergoing LAAO. The outcomes of interest included procedural success, in-hospital mortality, major bleeding, stroke, transient ischemic attack (TIA), and pericardial effusion/tamponade. The outcomes were pooled using the Hartung-Knapp-Sidik-Jonkman random-effects model, and the results were expressed as odds ratios (OR) with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: Seven studies involving 38,184 patients (5,742 CKD, 32,442 non-CKD) were included in the final analysis. The rate of procedural success (98.4% vs. 97.2%, OR 1.64, 95% CI: 0.78-3.45, p=0.19) was similar between both groups. Regarding procedural complications, there were no significant differences in terms of the risk of in-hospital mortality (OR 1.87, 95% CI: 0.60-5.82, p=0.28), stroke (OR 2.19, 95% CI: 0.76-6.29, p=0.15), TIA (OR 1.64, 95% CI: 0.78-3.45, p=0.19), major bleeding (OR 1.85, 95% CI: 0.78-4.42, p=0.16), or pericardial effusion/tamponade (OR 1.23, 95% CI: 0.76-2.00, p=0.39) between the two patient groups. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates comparable safety and efficacy of LAAO in patients with CKD compared to those without CKD. Further large prospective studies are warranted to confirm these findings.
Read full abstract