HRS 2011: What's Hot, What's Not, in AF Ablation

Article preview from Medtech Insight - June 1, 2011

Presenters at a day-long AF Symposium held just prior to this year's Heart Rhythm Society meeting lamented the disappointing long-term results with AF ablation and spoke about upcoming technological advances in catheters and adjunctive tools that may improve the procedure's efficacy and durability.

HRS 2011: What's Hot, What's Not, in AF Ablation

Article preview from Medtech Insight - June 1, 2011

US electrophysiologists (EPs) are expected to perform over 100,000 catheter-based ablation procedures this year to treat atrial fibrillation (AF), an abnormal heart rhythm associated with an increased risk of embolic stroke. AF affects more than three million Americans and is expected to expand rapidly over the next few decades as the population ages. Patients with AF are increasingly turning to catheter-based ablation procedures, and most notably, a procedure known as pulmonary vein isolation (PVI), which is now firmly established as the new standard-of-care for the treatment of drug-resistant paroxysmal (intermittent) AF (PAF).

A number of studies now clearly demonstrate the benefit of ablation therapy for PAF over antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs). However, although EPs are now routinely reporting PVI success rates (defined as freedom from AF) of 70% or higher at one year (albeit often with repeat procedures and concomitant use of AADs), long-term follow-up data that has begun to emerge paints a more sober picture of the PVI procedure. According to Hugh Calkins, MD, of Johns Hopkins University's Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, one of the pioneers in this field, electrical reconnections in previously isolated PVs are not uncommon following AF ablation, and AF recurrence rates continue to climb even years after the procedure. There is still much we don't know about AF ablation, he said, including longer-term efficacy and the safety and efficacy of the procedure in higher-risk patients, such as the elderly and those with heart failure.

Continued...

To read this article in its entirety, Purchase now as a PDF and receive it immediately via email. Or get it FREE when you subscribe to Medtech Insight Newsletter.

About Medtech Insight

Medtech Insight newsletter provides insights into the technology and market developments (devices, instrumentation, biomaterials, gene therapy, tissue engineering, etc.) impacting a wide range of surgical and non-surgical clinical practices.