Abstract
Population studies reporting contemporary long-term outcomes following catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF) are sparse. To evaluate long-term clinical outcomes of AF ablations. Patients undergoing AF ablation from 2008-17 in Australia and New Zealand were identified using hospitalization data. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality while all-cause and cause-specific rehospitalizations were secondary endpoints. A total of 30,601 unique patients (mean age 62.7±11.8y, 30.0% female, CHA2DS2-VASc score 1.0±1.1, 94.0% elective, median length of stay 1 day) underwent AF ablation and the median follow-up time was 3.8 years (range: 0-9.97 years). Overall, 1,505 patients (incident rate 1.2 per 100 person-years) died during the study with a survival probability of 88.6% by 9 years (95%CI 87.8%-89.3%) (Figure 1). Most patients (n=23,151, 8.4/100 person-years) had a least one re-hospitalization for any cause during follow-up (rehospitalization-free probability of 9.3% by 9 years). Re-hospitalization for AF/atrial flutter (n=11,114, 8.8/100 person-years) and repeat ablation (n=6,212, 4.9/100 person-years) were common. Re-hospitalization for stroke (n=883, 0.7/100 person-years), heart failure (n=1,385, 1.1/100 person-years), and acute myocardial infarction (n=548, 0.4/100 person-years) occurred less frequently. Nearly 90% of patients undergoing AF ablation survive at up to 9-years post-discharge while rates of rehospitalizations for stroke or heart failure were low. However, more than 90% patients are re-hospitalized, mostly due to atrial arrhythmia recurrence and repeat AF ablation.
Published Version
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