POSTOPERATIVE ANTICOAGULANT AND ANTIAGGREGANT STRATEGY FOR THE PATIENTS WITH ATRIAL FIBRILLATION FOLLOWING CAROTID ENDARTERECTOMY-SINGLE CENTER EXPERIENCE

Objective: Literature does not contain a standard procedure about anticoagulant therapy aimed at patients with atrial fibrillation and carotid artery stenosis following carotid endarterectomy. In this paper, we present our therapy modality at these patients in our clinic. Material and Method: The study includes 424 patients and 498 carotid endarterectomy operations performed by two surgeons with the same technique between June 2010 and December 2017. Fourty-five patients had chronic or paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. Therefore, the patients were receiving Coumadin and aspirin. The median age was 63.4 +/- 7.9. There were 27 female and 18 male patients. Thirty seven patients were hypertensive and 17 patients were diabetic. Nine patients underwent bilateral carotid endarterectomy operations. Thirty three patients were symptomatic. Eleven patients had coronary artery disease and 5 patients had cardiac valvular pathologies. Results: The whole carotid endarterectomy operations were performed under locoregional anesthesia. Early mortality occured in one patient because of hypertensive intracranial bleeding. The median follow up period was 68.4 +/- 19.2 months. One patient was lost due to aging and co-morbid factors and one patient was lost due to malignancy in late follow up period. Three patients required revisions for hematoma at incision region but an active bleeding focus could not be detected. There was no re-stenosis in any patient during follow-up. Conclusion: The large and multi-centered studies are needed for the anticoagulant therapy protocol for the patients with atrial fibrillation following carotid endarterectomy. We prefer combination of warfarin, providing INR value between 2-3, and 100 mg aspirin per day at our patients as therapy modality.