According to the findings of a new study, patients suffering from atrial fibrillation (AF) who are admitted to the hospital on weekends have a tendency to stay in the hospital longer. The study also found that AF patients are also less likely to have a cardioversion, and they are more likely to die while in the hospital than similar patients who have been admitted during the week.

“When they get admitted (with AF), we need to nip it in the bud quickly so that it doesn’t become a chronic problem,” Dr. Abhishek Deshmukh, University of Arkansas-Little Rock, told heartwire .

“This is a big problem in atrial fibrillation. We showed a small difference, but a significant difference, in outcomes between weekend and weekday,” he said. “This is just a step toward us optimizing the care of atrial fibrillation better (as has been done with) the care of other acute critical conditions such as MI and stroke.”

Results of the study were published online April 5, 2012 in the American Journal of Cardiology.

For their study, Deshmukh and colleagues analyzed the discharge records of 86,497 patients who had been diagnosed with AF in the 2008 database of the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) and made an outcome comparison of the patients who were brought in on the weekend against those who were admitted during the week. What they found was that patients that were admitted over the weekend had cardioversion procedures half as often as those patients that were admitted during the week. Another interesting finding from this study is that the AF patients in the urban hospitals didn’t die as much as those patients in the other hospitals. However, it should be noted that the hospital’s size was not a factor on the in-hospital mortality rates.

AF patients just can’t seem to catch a break these days. With medications like Multaq causing more harm than good and weekend hospital visits causing deaths, things are looking bleak indeed. Medications like Multaq have been under fire lately after the drug was proven to cause liver failure and a worsening of the heart condition. The drug is so dangerous that most doctors won’t prescribe the drug unless all other drugs don’t work.

If you or a loved on has developed liver failure or a worsening of the heart condition after taking Multaq, contact attorney Greg Jones today for a free consultation. I am experienced at fighting Multaq lawsuits and may be able to help you recover money for your injuries.