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Patients with atrial fibrillation have to take blood thinners to reduce their risk of stroke. And this is usually indefinitely, because unless the AFib goes away or is ablated, the patient remains at risk for stroke as a complication. And most of the strokes that happen in patients with atrial fibrillation happen because in the atrial appendage on the left side, the left atrial appendage, there are folds. And in those tiny folds, tiny clots form, and those clots can cause a big damage in the brain when they occlude a small vessel that provides blood flow to the brain. So as an alternative to thinning the blood, particularly in those patients that are either high risk for bleeding or those patients that have already had a bleed, we can use a Watchman device to reduce their risk of long term stroke. And from the studies that have been done thus far, the benefits of having a Watchman in place is equal to taking blood thinners.
