Autopsy findings of left atrial appendage closure device

Masaaki Nakase; Masahiko Asami; Kazuyuki Yahagi; Yu Sato; Atsuhito Nakayama; Kai Ninomiya; Tetsu Tanaka; Yu Horiuchi; Hitomi Yuzawa; Kota Komiyama; Jun Tanaka; Jiro Aoki; Renu Virmani; Masaya Mori; Kengo Tanabe

doi:10.1016/j.carpath.2021.107384

Autopsy findings of left atrial appendage closure device

Cardiovasc Pathol. 2022 Jan-Feb:56:107384. doi: 10.1016/j.carpath.2021.107384. Epub 2021 Sep 15.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Division of Cardiology, Mitsui Memorial Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
² Division of Cardiology, Mitsui Memorial Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. Electronic address: yyahakazu@gmail.com.
³ CVPath Institute, Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States.
⁴ Department of Pathology, Mitsui Memorial Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.

PMID: 34534669
DOI: 10.1016/j.carpath.2021.107384

Abstract

We report an autopsy case of an 80-year-old woman who underwent left atrial appendage closure with a WATCHMAN (Boston Scientific, St. Paul, MN, USA) device. This is the first report of histologic assessment following left atrial appendage closure with a WATCHMAN device at 3 months. Gross and histopathological examinations revealed neoendocardial coverage of the WATCHMAN device. Partial endothelialization was verified by CD34 staining; however, it remains unclear when complete endothelialization is likely to occur.

Keywords: Autopsy; Left atrial appendage closure; Pathology; Watchman.

Publication types

Case Reports

MeSH terms

Aged, 80 and over
Atrial Appendage* / pathology
Atrial Appendage* / surgery
Autopsy
Cardiac Surgical Procedures* / instrumentation
Female
Humans