Temporal details
All TEE’s were performed within three days of patient arrival, with over
75% of TEE’s performed within the first day. Only seven tests were
performed on day three. The time to the performance of TEE was not
significantly different between the two groups. The time to
cardioversion, however, was significant between the groups. The ED
cardioversion group had a markedly shorter time to cardioversion than
the cardiology department group, with a mean difference of over 2.5 days
longer for the cardiology department patients (p<0.001). The
average time to cardioversion was a mean 1.03 ± 0.8 days in the ED group
versus 4.17 ± 1.9 days for the cardiology department group.
Correspondingly, the total length of stay (LOS) in the hospital was
significantly different between the groups with a mean of 1.49 ± 1.5
days for the ED patients versus a nearly five-fold increase of a mean of
7.2 ± 3.5 days for the cardiology department patients
(p<0.001). Patients were also kept in the hospital after their
cardioversions for significantly different periods of time. The
cardiology department cohort was discharged an average of three days
after the cardioversion, whereas the ED cohort was discharged less than
a day later on average (p<0.001). (Table 2)