Does an open irrigation tip catheter improve procedure time and safety compared to a conventional catheter in patients with non-paroxysmal atrial fibrillation undergoing radiofrequency catheter ablation?
While open irrigation tip catheters shorten ablation time for non-paroxysmal AF, they pose a risk of fluid overload complications in susceptible patients.
RFCA for NPAF using OITC results in a shorter procedure time compared with CONC. However, patients with a large left atrium and a large amount of fluid (>4L) infused via the OITC need to be carefully monitored to prevent pulmonary edema or pleural effusion because of fluid overload.
Hwang et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: