Background: Vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency has been identified as a risk factor for postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). This is associated with significantly increased morbidity and mortality leading to not only prolonged hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) stay, but increased risk of stroke, heart failure, dementia, and long-term atrial fibrillation. This analysis aims to evaluate the efficacy of vitamin D supplementation in preventing POAF in patients undergoing CABG.
Methods: We searched PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and SCOPUS from inception to June 2022 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The outcome of interest was the incidence of POAF. Secondarily, we analyzed the length of ICU stay, length of hospital stay, cardiac arrest, cardiac tamponade, and blood transfusion. Results were pooled using a random-effect model. Three RCTs consisting of 448 patients were included.
Results: Our results suggest that vitamin D significantly reduced the incidence of POAF (RR: 0.60; 95 % CI: 0.40, 0.90; p = 0.01; I2 = 8 %). It was also observed that vitamin D significantly reduced the duration of ICU stay (WMD: -1.639; 95 % CI: -1.857, -1.420; p < 0.00001). Furthermore, the length of hospital stay (WMD: -0.85; 95 % CI: -2.14, 0.43; p = 0.19; I2 = 87 %) was also reduced, however, the result was not significant.
Conclusion: Our pooled analysis suggests that vitamin D prevents POAF. Future large-scale randomized trials are needed to confirm our results.
Keywords: Arrhythmia; Coronary artery bypass grafting; Postoperative atrial fibrillation; Vitamin D.
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