Abstract

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is categorized as a supraventricular tachycardia that can lead to hemodynamic instability and even mortality, especially in hospitalized patients. The aim of this review was to identify the predictors and clinical outcomes of atrial fibrillation occurring during hospitalization either in medical or surgical patients in Saudi Arabia. Pubmed database was searched thoroughly for the publication during the last ten years from 2008 to 2018 for trials examining atrial fibrillation during the hospital stay for both medical and surgical patients in Saudi Arabia. A total of 126 trials were found. After refining research to include studies that were published in English and recruiting human subjects in the past ten years, 38 papers were found. The trials were further filtered to include only the trials that provided full information on the cause of hospital admission, comorbidities and outcomes measured. Only seven trials were matching the inclusion criteria. Higher mortality was linked to in-hospital diagnosis of atrial fibrillation. Diabetes is a strong predictor for atrial fibrillation in hospitalized patients.

Key words: atrial fibrillation, hospitalization, diabetes, mortality, Saudi Arabia