When can I stop my heart medicines (antiarrhythmics) and Coumadin?
This is individualized based upon the patient. It is also individualized based upon the postoperative heart rhythm. The patients who have an extremely enlarged left atrium and right atrium, as well as chronic or permanent atrial fibrillation are more likely to need long term maintenance therapy with the anticoagulants, i.e., Coumadin and potentially heart medicines. Our goal is to see a sustained normal rhythm for a number of months prior to taking the patient off some of his medicines. I usually like to see sustained normal sinus rhythm for about three months prior to considering removing Coumadin. Our goal for all patients is to try to maintain normal sinus rhythm so that we can wean as many of the medicines down or remove them over a period of time.
