Safety and Clinical Outcome of Catheter Ablation of Ventricular Arrhythmias Using Contact Force Sensing: Consecutive Case Series

BACKGROUND: Poor catheter-to-myocardial contact can lead to ineffective ablation lesions and suboptimal outcome. Contact force (CF) sensing catheters in ventricular tachyarrhythmia (VT) ablations have not been studied for their long-term efficacy. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to compare CF ablation to manual ablation (MAN) and remote magnetic navigation (RMN) ablation for safety and efficacy in acute and long-term outcome. METHODS: A total of 239 consecutive patients who underwent VT ablation with the use of MAN, CF, or RMN catheters were included in this single-center cohort study from January 2007 until March 2014. The primary endpoints were procedural success, acute major complications, and VT recurrences at follow-up. The median follow-up period was 25 months. RESULTS: Acute success was achieved in 182 out of 239 procedures (76%). Acute success in manual ablation, CF ablation and RMN ablation was 71%, 71%, and 86%, respectively (P = 0.03). Major complications occurred in 3.3% and there were less major complications (P = 0.04) in the RMN group. After an initial successful procedure, 66 of 182 patients (36%) had a recurrence during follow-up. This was not significantly different between groups. Using an intention-to-treat analysis, 124 patients (52%) had a recurrence. The recurrence rate was lowest in the RMN group. CONCLUSION: The use of CF sensing catheters did not improve procedural outcome or safety profile in comparison to non-CF sensing ablation in this observational study of ventricular arrhythmia ablations.