Atrial fibrillation ablation is one of the fastest growing techniques in cardiology and due to the very high number of patients that might be candidates to this procedure, a significant number of resources will have to be devoted to it to be able to treat them in the following years.
Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is the most frequent cardiac arrhythmia. Its prevalence increases with age affecting more than 5% of the population older than 75 years of age. Overall it is estimated that more than 3.000.000 patients in Europe suffer from atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation doubles the possibility of death mainly due to the higher incidence of thromboembolic events and occurrence of heart failure in patients suffering this arrhythmia.
One treatment objective is directed to avoid the negative consequences of the arrhythmia by trying to maintain normal sinus rhythm. Two strategies exist to obtain this result:
1. Chronic treatment with antiarrhythmic drugs (AAD)
2. Catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation
1. AAD treatment tries to block or modulate the electrical activity of the heart avoiding initiation and perpetuation of the arrhythmia. It is effective in about 60% of patients and requires long-term treatment. Many of the drugs used have side effects, some of them disabling for the patient. Many drugs are available and combination of them might be used in case of failure. Compliance of the treatment is basic for long-term success.