Follow-up
Patients were followed up with clinical visits and 24-hour Holter monitoring at 3, 6 and 12 months. Any arrhythmia lasting >30 seconds, according to patients’ symptoms or documented on Holter monitoring, was considered a recurrence. A blanking period of 3 months, in which recurrences were mostly treated with electrical cardioversion, was considered. After the 3-month blanking period, paroxysmal and well tolerated short episodes of tachycardia were managed with medication or a wait-and-see strategy. Persistent or bad tolerated episodes were treated with repeat ablation, electrical cardioversion or atrioventricular node ablation and pacemaker implant, depending on the presumed risk of posterior recurrences according to the grade of atrial disease.
In patients taking rhythm control drugs before the procedure, these were kept during the blanking period, and afterwards discontinued if no recurrences had occurred; these drugs might be continued up to 3 additional months (until the 6-month follow-up visit) at the discretion of the attending physician.