Incidence of early adverse events surrounding direct current cardioversion of persistent atrial fibrillation. A cohort study of practices

AIMS: To establish the incidence of early adverse events surrounding direct current (DC) cardioversion of persistent atrial fibrillation in an unselected patient cohort and to describe and analyse these complications. METHODS: Prospective study over a three-month period (February, March and April 2000). Outcome measures included all serious adverse events during the hospitalisation for DC cardioversion. Six hundred and eighty-four DC cardioversion were performed on 659 patients. RESULTS: The rate of adverse events was 4.4% including 1.3% bradycardia, 0.3% ventricular arrhythmia, 0.3% QT increase, 1% serious haemorrhages, 0.4% death and 1.2% miscellaneous adverse events. CONCLUSION: The perceived tolerance to DC cardioversion in atrial fibrillation should be amended with the 4.4% serious early adverse events.