Left Atrial Appendage Closure With WATCHMAN FLX Device in Recurrent Gastrointestinal Bleeding: The GI-FLX Registry

Left Atrial Appendage Closure With WATCHMAN FLX Device in Recurrent Gastrointestinal Bleeding: The GI-FLX Registry

The GI-FLX Registry is intended to create a registry of patients with a history of Atrial Fibrillation (AF) and Gastrointestinal (GI) bleed who will receive Left Atrial Appendage Closure (LAAC) with WATCHMAN FLX device and compare to patients with AF and GI bleed who do not have LAAC. The GI-FLX Registry will be a multi-center, non-randomized registry. Approximately 250 prospective patients will be enrolled at all 4 sites. Historical cohort of 250 patients after propensity score matching with WATCHMAN-FLX arm will be included in the final analysis.

A large gap in the literature exists as no prior study has evaluated the outcomes of those with prior GI bleeding undergoing LAAC. Furthermore, patients with prior GI bleed may be on no or minimal antithrombotic therapy prior to LAAC and subsequently require escalation of antithrombotic therapy following LAAC. Long-term outcomes including bleeding events will be most relevant and informative to this potentially high-risk subgroup. Therefore, this is an attempt to create a prospective registry describing outcomes of patients with AF and prior GI bleed undergoing LAAC to provide insight into safety and efficacy and will also compare to a historical cohort of patients with AF and GI bleed without LAAC.

Inclusion Criteria:

• All male and female patients who are > 18 years of age
• Have Atrial Fibrillation
• Have CHADS2VASc > 2
• Have history of GI bleeding OR hospital admission that required blood transfusion OR emergency room visit requiring stopping of OAC OR outpatient 2 gm of Hgb drop from baseline, with or without evidence of upper or lower GI bleeding and requiring endoscopic procedure with holding of OAC.
• Ability to understand study procedures and to comply with them for the entire length of the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Inability or unwillingness of individual to give written informed consent.
• Other indications for OAC like deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or Pulmonary embolism (PE) or mechanical heart valve.
• Patient who is pregnant will be excluded (Pregnancy will be excluded by checking urine beta-HCG).
• Patient not following up with our practice / clinic after the procedure