Health and symptom outcomes
Patients reported high post-ablation quality of life (mean 7.3 [SD
2.0] out of 10) and low symptom burden on the AFSS (Table 3 ).
Patients described feeling well post-ablation, but some struggled to
quantify changes in cardiac rhythm, symptoms and quality of life without
a tool to help them objectively measure: “I even forgot almost
how my status was before the ablation. And I feel comfortable now. And
when you are okay, you forget when you were not okay.” -Patient 10.
One-third of patients reported having AF recurrence post-ablation, which
aligns with the estimates clinicians in this study gave of the overall
success rate in their practice. Clinicians report that patients begin to
reframe their view of ablations if the initial ablation is unsuccessful
and a repeat ablation may be needed: “You’re always going to have
a handful who have a recurrence, and then they’re upset that they have
to possibly have another ablation…Those are the ones who say, ‘Why did
I even bother doing this?’ or ‘How many ablations can I get? Is this
even okay to have so many ablations?”’ -Clinician 3.