Abstract
Atrial fibrillation has become the most commonly seen cardiac arrhythmia in clinical practice affecting almost 5.6 million Americans with that number expected to rise in the near future. The current literature review is aimed to assess the efficacy of catheter ablation in the treatment of patients with atrial fibrillation when compared to standard medical therapy. A PubMed search for studies of "Atrial Fibrillation" found 83,251 articles. Following the application of inclusion/exclusion criteria, we identified 44 articles of relevance that compared catheter ablation and medical therapy in the treatment of atrial fibrillation. These 44 articles included 20 Observational studies, eight randomized clinical trials, three clinical trials, five cohort studies, and eight review articles. Our review determined that catheter ablation was associated with a much lower rate of reoccurrence of atrial fibrillation when compared to medical therapy, as well as decreased cardiovascular outpatient visits and thromboembolic complications. The effect of quality on life when compared to medical treatment, however, was found to be inconclusive.
Highlights
BackgroundIn recent years, atrial fibrillation (AF) has become the most commonly seen cardiac arrhythmia in clinical practice affecting an estimated 5.6 million Americans [1]
The current literature review is aimed to assess the efficacy of catheter ablation in the treatment of patients with atrial fibrillation when compared to standard medical therapy
We examined the efficacy of using catheter ablation in treating patients diagnosed with atrial fibrillation when compared to standard medical therapy
Summary
BackgroundIn recent years, atrial fibrillation (AF) has become the most commonly seen cardiac arrhythmia in clinical practice affecting an estimated 5.6 million Americans [1]. Due to an aging population and the increase of cardiac comorbidities, its prevalence is projected to rise to approximately 12 million Americans by 2050 [2] This poses a major public health issue as AF patients have been shown to have increased hospitalizations due to stroke and heart failure, an increase in all-cause mortality, as well as considerably impaired quality of life (QOL) [3,4]. The current approach for managing episodes of AF focuses on control of heart rate, prevention of thrombotic events and restoration and maintenance of sinus rhythm [6] This is first done using medical management, which consists of using anti-arrhythmic agents like class 1A, 1C, 3A agents, and anticoagulants [7]. Thanks to significant technological advancement in recent years, this method of treatment has been found to be very effective
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