Abstract
Atrial fibrillation is the commonest cardiac arrhythmia, with significant morbidity related to symptoms, heart failure, and thromboembolism, which is associated with excess mortality. Over the past 10 years, many centers worldwide have reported high success rates and few complications after a single ablation procedure in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. Recent studies indicate a short-term and long-term superiority of catheter ablation as compared with conventional antiarrhythmic drug therapy in terms of arrhythmia recurrence, quality of life, and arrhythmia progression. As a result, catheter ablation is evolving to a front-line therapy in many patients with atrial fibrillation. However, in patients with persistent long-standing atrial fibrillation catheter ablation strategy is more complex and time-consuming, frequently requiring repeat procedures to achieve success rates as high as in paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. In the near future, however, with growing experience and evolving technology, catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation may be extended also to patients with long-standing atrial fibrillation.
Translated title of the contribution | Atrial fibrillation ablation |
---|---|
Original language | Spanish |
Pages (from-to) | 560-569 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Revista Espanola de Cardiologia |
Volume | 65 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jun 2012 |
Keywords
- Atrial fibrillation
- Atrial tachycardia
- Catheter ablation
- Mapping
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine