Does initial treatment with catheter cryoballoon ablation reduce the incidence of persistent atrial fibrillation or recurrent atrial tachyarrhythmia in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation compared to antiarrhythmic drugs?
Initial treatment with catheter cryoballoon ablation reduces the progression of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation compared to antiarrhythmic drugs over a 3-year period.
Initial treatment of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation with catheter cryoballoon ablation was associated with a lower incidence of persistent atrial fibrillation or recurrent atrial tachyarrhythmia over 3 years of follow-up than initial use of antiarrhythmic drugs. (Funded by the Cardiac Arrhythmia Network of Canada and others; EARLY-AF ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02825979.).
Andrade et al. (2022) studied this question.