Effect of Magnesium Sulfate in Prevention of Postoperative Atrial Fibrillation Arrhythmia among Candidates of CABG Surgery with Abnormal P-wave Duration

Cardiac arrhythmias, especially atrial fibrillation, are among the most common early complications of open-heart surgery. Hypomagnesemia is one of the clinical mechanisms associated with the pathogenesis of postoperative atrial fibrillation. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of magnesium sulfate on the prevention of atrial fibrillation in patients with abnormal P-wave duration who underwent coronary artery bypass graft (CABG)surgery.

In this clinical trial, 150 patients participated who had undergone CABG surgery at Imam Khomeini hospital in Ahvaz in 2014. According to the inclusion criteria, the intervention and control groups were randomly matched. The intervention group, consisting of 57 patients, received 2.4 g of magnesium sulfate daily for three days and 75 patients of the control group received a placebo. Prevention of postoperative atrial fibrillation by magnesium sulfate was evaluated in patients and data were analyzed using SPSS software.

The two groups did not have a significant difference in terms of gender, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension. Also, mean P-wave duration, length of intensive care unit stay, the total length of hospitalization, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), distribution of creatinine, atrial fibrillation, and aortic clamp time in intervention and control groups were not statistically significant. Only, the total pump duration difference was reported to be statistically significant between groups.

The results of our study showed that the administration of magnesium sulfate alone cannot be helpful in the prevention of atrial fibrillation among patients with long P-wave duration.Trial Registration: https://www.irct.ir/, Identifier: IRCT2015092814190N9