Catheter Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation

How It Is Done

Catheter ablation

AV node ablation

What To Expect

Recovery from catheter ablation is usually quick. You may be hospitalized for 1 to 2 days so that your doctor can monitor your heart.

Many people think that having ablation means they'll be able to stop taking an anticoagulant every day to prevent stroke. But that is only true if your risk of stroke is low. Studies haven't proved that ablation for atrial fibrillation lowers your risk of stroke.^{footnote 3} So you'll still need to take an anticoagulant if your risk of stroke remains high. Your doctor can tell you about your stroke risk.

After an ablation, you might take an antiarrhythmic medicine for a few months to help keep your heart in a normal rhythm.

Your doctor might ask you to take your pulse at home to see if it's irregular. You might also use an ambulatory EKG monitor (such as a Holter monitor) at home to check your heart rhythm.

You might feel symptoms, such as palpitations, after the ablation procedure. These symptoms might happen while your heart is healing. Sometimes the symptoms may feel different to you after the ablation compared to before the ablation. During your follow-up visits, tell your doctor if you have symptoms. If they don't go away after a few months, you may choose to have a second ablation procedure.

Watch

Why It Is Done

Ablation is done to stop atrial fibrillation from happening and to relieve symptoms.

You and your doctor can check a few things to see if ablation is a good choice for you. These things include:^{footnote 4, footnote 5}

• What type of atrial fibrillation you have (paroxysmal or persistent).
• How bad your symptoms are.
• If you have a problem with the structure of your heart.
• If you have tried heart rhythm medicines already. Your symptoms may not have gone away or you had side effects that are hard to live with.

The choice to have catheter ablation also depends on what you want.

Catheter ablation does have some serious risks, but they are rare. Many people decide to have ablation because they hope to feel much better afterward. That hope is worth the risks to them. But the risks may not be worth it for people who have few symptoms or for people who are less likely to be helped by ablation.

Learn more

How Well It Works

Catheter ablation can stop atrial fibrillation from happening and can relieve symptoms. Your doctor can help you decide if ablation is a good choice based on your health.

Catheter ablation works better in people who have paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (episodes last 7 days or less) than in people who have persistent atrial fibrillation (episodes last more than 7 days). For both types, episodes may go away on their own or they go away after treatment. Ablation might be less likely to work the longer a person has persistent atrial fibrillation.^{footnote 6}

Things that limit how well catheter ablation works include older age, other heart problems, obesity, and sleep apnea.^{footnote 6}

Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation

• Research shows that ablation stops atrial fibrillation from happening for at least 1 year in about 60 to 90 out of 100 people.^{footnote 6} That means it does not help in about 10 to 40 out of 100 cases.
• In a worldwide survey, ablation helped 84 out of every 100 people.^{footnote 7}

Persistent atrial fibrillation

• Research shows that ablation stops atrial fibrillation for at least 6 to 12 months in about 60 to 80 out of 100 people.^{footnote 6} That means it doesn't work in about 20 to 40 out of 100 cases.
• In a worldwide survey, ablation helped about 65 out of every 100 people.^{footnote 6, footnote 7}

Repeated ablation procedures

Atrial fibrillation sometimes returns after an ablation. Research shows that atrial fibrillation may return within 3 months of an ablation in about 50 out of 100 people. ^{footnote 8} This means that atrial fibrillation may not return in about 50 out of 100 people.

If the first procedure doesn't get rid of atrial fibrillation completely, you may choose to have it done a second time. Repeated ablations have a higher chance of success.^{footnote 8}

Risks

Catheter ablation is considered safe. Most people do well afterward.

Your doctor can help you decide whether the possible benefits of ablation outweigh these risks:

Problems during the procedure

If problems happen during the procedure, your doctor is prepared to fix them right away. Serious problems happen in about 6 out of 100 people.^{footnote 9} These problems include an accidental hole in the heart, the need for emergency surgery, and nerve damage in the chest.

Rare problems include cardiac tamponade and stroke. They happen in about 1 out of 100 people.^{footnote 9} This means that they do not happen in about 99 out of 100 people. Another serious problem affects the pulmonary vein and happens in about 1 to 6 people out of 100 people. ^{footnote 10} This means that it does not happen in about 94 to 99 people out of 100.

Death from the procedure happens to about 5 out of 1,000 people.^{footnote 9}

Problems after the procedure

Problems after the procedure can be minor (such as mild pain) or serious (such as bleeding). Your doctor will check you closely after the procedure. He or she can fix most of these problems.

The most common problems are related to the catheter that was inserted in a vein.^{footnote 5} Most of these vein problems aren't serious. They include minor pain, bleeding, and bruising. Vein problems happen in about 1 to 3 people out of 100.^{footnote 9} This means that they don't happen in 97 to 99 people out of 100.

Serious problems aren't common. These problems include stroke and new heart rhythm problems. Another problem is a life-threatening problem with the esophagus (atrio-esophageal fistula) that happens to about 4 out of 10,000 people.^{footnote 11}