This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Hello. I’m Dr David Johnson, professor of medicine and chief of gastroenterology at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia.
I’m back from attending Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2023 in Chicago, where there was a bevy of information — so much so that I’m going to split this into two separate discussions of all the significant findings I believe to possibly have practice-changing implications, now or on the near horizon.
The Option for Occlusion Devices in Atrial Fibrillation and Cirrhosis
Let’s begin part 1 of this overview of DDW 2023 with a study of outcomes in patients with cirrhosis and a left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) device, also known as the WATCHMAN procedure.[1] We use this in our patients with atrial fibrillation, but when these patients also have cirrhosis, it can cause concern among the interventional cardiologist and the surgeons backing them up, who must assess the risk profile to determine whether or not patients should even undergo this procedure.