Clinical results
After a mean follow-up of 19.3 ± 15.3 months, and excluding a 3-month blanking period, mean survival free from atrial arrhythmias was 22.1 ± 3.5 months (95%CI: 15.4–28.9 months). Clinical and procedural variables of patients with and without recurrences of atrial arrhythmias are shown in Table 3. No statistical comparisons were made due to the limited sample size.
5 Patients had arrhythmia recurrences during the blanking period; in 3 of them, electrical cardioversion was performed, with 1 recurrence after the blanking period; in the other 2 patients, rhythm control strategy was abandoned, and atrioventricular node ablation plus pacemaker implant was needed. 8 Patients had arrhythmia recurrencesafter the blanking period (including the 2 patients in whom rhythm control was stopped): 5 with AT and 3 with AF; 3 reablation procedures were performed; 2 showed a different reentrant AT, and 1 showed a gap-related AT. Of the 15 patients with follow-up >1 year, 10 (66.7%) were free from atrial arrhythmias at a 12-month follow-up.
Mean survival free from atrial arrhythmias in patients with ablation of mappable reentrant ATs during the same period (24.9 ± 2.1 months; 95%CI: 20.7–29.2 months) was similar (p = 0.740) (Figure 6), as well as one-year freedom from atrial arrhythmias (65.8%, p = 0.946).