Atrial Fibrillation and Atrial Flutter

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia in the inpatient setting. It is often precipitated by physical stressors such as acute illness or surgery and can result in patient discomfort, hemodynamic instability, heart failure and thromboembolism. Prevention of stroke with risk-based application of systemic anticoagulation is the most important treatment goal, while numerous pharmacologic and procedure-based therapies are available for control of ventricular response rate and the rhythm itself.