Even if you stop taking anticoagulants after atrial fibrillation, the risk of stroke and organ bleeding is reduced by up to 87.5%
Sep 01, 2025
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A research team led by Information Young and Kim Dae-hoon of Severance Hospital's cardiology department announced on the 1st that the risk of stroke or important organ bleeding is reduced by up to 87.5% when the patient stops oral anticoagulants for a long time after receiving electrode catheter resection, a treatment for atrial fibrillation.
The study, presented by Professor Information Young's research team at the European Heart Association in Madrid, Spain, was published in the latest issue of the prestigious international medical journal JAMA (JAMA) published by the American Medical Association (IF 55.0).
Patients with atrial fibrillation, a type of arrhythmia in which the atrium runs very irregularly, take oral anticoagulants (OAC) before the procedure. Atrial fibrillation patients tend to develop blood clots (blood cakes) due to blood accumulation in the atrium, and if there is even a small blood clot when performing electrode catheter resection, there is a risk of stroke during the procedure.
Cathter ablation is a method of treatment by inserting a tube into the heart area that causes arrhythmia and applying high-frequency heat, cooling energy, or pulse field energy. Even after successful electrode catheter resection, oral anticoagulants were recommended for patients at high risk of stroke.
However, if an electrode catheter resection is performed, the possibility of blood clots (blood clots) is less likely to occur unless atrial fibrillation recur, and as it is effective in preventing blood clotting, continuing to take it increases the risk of major bleeding such as brain bleeding and gastrointestinal bleeding. Nevertheless, there was controversy over the stability of the drug.
Professor Information Young's research team wanted to determine the difference between when patients with atrial fibrillation continue to take oral anticoagulants without recurrence for more than a year after undergoing electrode catheter resection.
The research team recruited 840 patients with atrial fibrillation who underwent electrode catheter resection from 18 hospitals in Korea, including Severance Hospital, between July 2020 and March 2023, and divided them into patient A (423 patients) who continued to take the drug and patient B (417 patients) who stopped taking the drug. After that, the two groups were compared at 24 months after the end of the procedure. At this time, the number of patients with major complex events such as stroke and major bleeding was 1 (0.3%) in group B and 8 (2.2%) in group A. In addition, serious bleeding occurred in 0 patients in group B and 5 (1.4%) in group A.
Professor Kim Dae-hoon responded to these results by saying, `If you continue to take oral anticoagulants, the risk of internal bleeding increases, and this risk is reduced by stopping the drug.'
Consequently, discontinuation of oral anticoagulants in patients with atrial fibrillation who underwent electrode catheter resection reduced the risk of stroke, systemic embolism, and significant bleeding compared to continuing to take them.
Professor Information Young said, `Although patients with atrial fibrillation who have undergone electrodator resection are less likely to take it, the guideline is to continue taking oral anticoagulants after the procedure, so there is an additional risk.' `This study, which confirmed that stopping oral anticoagulants is safe from the risk of stroke or major bleeding if the heart maintains a normal pulse after undergoing electrodator resection, will be the basis for establishing new guidelines for the treatment of patients with atrial fibrillation.'
On the other hand, this study was conducted as part of the Ministry of Health and Welfare's support for the 'patient-centered medical technology optimization research project (supervision: Korea Institute of Health and Medical Affairs)'.
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
