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World J Cardiol. Feb 26, 2017; 9(2): 139-146
Published online Feb 26, 2017. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v9.i2.139
Left atrial appendage occlusion: A better alternative to anticoagulation?
Ibrahim Akin, Christoph A Nienaber
Ibrahim Akin, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University Heidelberg, 68167 Mannheim, Germany
Christoph A Nienaber, Royal Brompton Hospital and Harefield Trust, London SW3 6NP, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Both Akin I and Nienaber CA contributed to the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflict of interest for all authors.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Ibrahim Akin, Professor, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University Heidelberg, Theodor-Kutzer Ufer 1-3, 68167 Mannheim, Germany. ibrahim.akin@umm.de
Telephone: +49-621-3835229 Fax: +49-621-3832012
Received: July 13, 2016
Peer-review started: July 16, 2016
First decision: September 30, 2016
Revised: November 20, 2016
Accepted: December 1, 2016
Article in press: December 3, 2016
Published online: February 26, 2017
Core Tip

Core tip: Non-valvular atrial fibrillation is associated with increased risk of embolic stroke. To date, risk-based anticoagulation is the cornerstore to avoid this. However, several patients have got absolute or relative contraindication to this and thus are undertreated. For these patient population the implantation of a local left atrial appendage occluder might be an alternative.