Background Postoperative occurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) has been associated with less favorable outcomes in patients undergoing cardiac surgery and may result in increased post-operative morbidity and mortality.

Objectives A systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies were conducted to verify the effect of statins in the occurrence of AF after cardiac surgery.

Methods Using the Medline database, the Cochrane clinical trials database and online clinical trial databases, we reviewed all randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies examining the risk factors of occurrence AF after CABG. We searched for literature published April 2009 or earlier.

Results Our review identified 6 studies (observational studies), involving 10165 patients, that examined the effect of statins on the occurrence of AF following cardiac surgery. Conflict from most of articles, the overall outcomes suggest that the statins group did not have a significant decrease in the occurrence of AF following cardiac surgery (P = 0.19).

Conclusions The preoperative medication of statins showed no significant decrease in AF occurrence following cardiac surgery in the Meta-analysis result. A more prospective studies and researches are needed to explore and demonstrate the real effect of statins on the postoperative AF.