Why the study?
Pulmonary vein reconnection remains the major cause of AF recurrence after pulmonary vein isolation, prompting the need for novel ablation tools and strategies.
Pulmonary vein isolation remains the treatment of choice for symptomatic drug-refractory AF, with novel technologies aiming to reduce AF recurrence from vein reconnection.
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Supports PVI as preferred ablation for drug-refractory AF; leaves open efficacy of novel anti-reconnection technologies.
Pulmonary vein isolation is the treatment of choice for symptomatic patients with paroxysmal and persistent drug-refractory AF. The reconnection of previously isolated pulmonary veins remains the major cause of AF recurrence. Novel ablation tools, such as balloon technologies or alternative energy sources, might help to overcome this limitation. Patients with non-paroxysmal AF and with AF recurrence might benefit from alternative ablation strategies. However, further studies are warranted to further improve our knowledge of the underlying mechanisms of AF and to obtain long-term clinical outcomes on new ablation techniques.
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Rottner et al. (2020) studied this question.
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