Match between treatment and goals
Nearly all patients described having one of two goals for the ablation:
symptom treatment and antiarrhythmic medication discontinuation.
Clinicians agreed these were the two most common goals. Many patients
described wanting “to get back to my normal life, doing what I
was doing.” -Patient 1. Most patients and clinicians agreed ablations
helped them achieve these goals most of the time, although medication
discontinuation post-ablation was often more nuanced and unpredictable
than patients appreciated. One patient stated: “I’m not real big
on pill taking. It is one of the reasons why I got the ablation done.
But, that didn’t happen. He said we’ll see what happens, especially with
the blood thinner. I’m still on that two times a day.” -Patient 6.