[Interventional left atrial appendage occlusion. A reasonable alternative to oral anticoagulation - even in the era of the new substances?].

As a potential alternative to long-term oral anticoagulation with vitamin K antagonists in patients with atrial fibrillation, the interventional left atrial appendage occlusion has shown to be non-inferior regarding neurological events. With the new oral direct factor II and factor Xa inhibitors playing an emerging role in stroke prophylaxis, an individual treatment strategy has to be found weighing bleeding and stroke risk against the peri-interventional complication rate based on established risk scores.