Results
Patient characteristics are listed in Table 1. All patients had a strong indication for stroke prophylaxis with an average CHA2DS2-VASc score 5.4 (range 3-8), and 4 patients had a history of prior bleeding complications while on anticoagulation (2 with prior intracranial hemorrhage, 2 with prior gastrointestinal bleeding requiring transfusions). Four patients had previously undergone surgical LAA ligation with an average time between surgical and endovascular LAA closure of 6.4 ± 3.6 years. Of these four patients, three had anticoagulation stopped after the surgical LAA ligation. Of these three patients, one had a subsequent TEE as part of a cardioversion and was found to have the residual connection and a thrombus in the LAA. Another experienced a thromboembolic event. The fifth patient had a previous WATCHMAN device placed but had a persistent communication of the LAA to the LA. Of the five patients, three presented to the percutaneous closure procedure on uninterrupted therapeutic anticoagulation; the other 2 were on ASA monotherapy (Table 2 ).