Westphal S, et al. - Using 1,170 patients of both genders (871 males, 299 females) from the RIPHeart-Study (a prospective, double-blind, multicenter, randomized trial), researchers investigated genetic variants related to postoperative complications following cardiac surgery in a genome-wide association study (GWAS). Participants were subjects undergoing non-emergent cardiac surgery. A binary composite complication rate covering atrial fibrillation, delirium, non-fatal myocardial infarction, acute renal failure and/or any new stroke until hospital discharge with a maximum of fourteen days after surgery was assessed (primary endpoint). The analysis was carried out with 547,644 genotyped markers. Genome-wide significance was reached by one single nucleotide polymorphism (rs78064607) and 139 (adjusted for all other outcomes) SNPs showed promising association with p < 1 × 10^− 5 from the GWAS, as seen after quality control and adjustment for clinical covariate. Several potential loci related to new-onset of atrial fibrillation, delirium, myocardial infarction, acute kidney injury and stroke after cardiac surgery were identified in this study, especially PHLPP2, BBS9, RyR2, DUSP4, and HSPA8.