Need to correct medication chaos in patients with atrial fibrillation

  It is a common mistake that aspirin is used in almost 70% of our patients with atrial fibrillation. In fact, aspirin, however, has no real significance in preventing stroke in atrial fibrillation. At present, international studies generally agree that aspirin is ineffective in treating thromboembolism caused by atrial fibrillation, and aspirin for atrial fibrillation has been largely discredited. However, aspirin is effective for thromboembolism caused by coronary heart disease and can reduce the incidence of myocardial infarction. If a patient has both coronary artery disease and atrial fibrillation, both warfarin and aspirin may be required.  Amiodarone is the most used and overused, but the least important and needed. Of the thousands of patients we see in our outpatient clinics each year now, the most patients use amiodarone, yet 80% of them should not. For patients with infrequent episodes of atrial fibrillation, a few episodes a year, there is no need to take a drug that has far more side effects than benefits; and for patients with very frequent episodes, why take a long-term drug when catheter ablation therapy is more appropriate.  In addition to amiodarone, the most common antiarrhythmic drug is cardioplegia. Cardioplegia also has side effects and is not as effective as amiodarone, so long-term use of cardioplegia is not very helpful for patients with atrial fibrillation.