@article{3163176,
    title = "Prospective European Survey on Atrial Fibrillation Ablation: Clinical
Characteristics of Patients and Ablation Strategies Used in Different
Countries",
    author = "Themistoclakis, Sakis and Raviele, Antonio and China, Paolo and Pappone, and Carlo and De Ponti, Roberto and Revishvili, Amiran and Aliot, Etienne and and Kuck, Karl-Heinz and Hoff, Per Ivar and Shah, Dipen and Almendral, and Jesus and Manolis, Antonis S. and Chierchia, Gian-Battista and Oto, Ali and and Vatasescu, Radu G. and Sinkovec, Matjaz and Cappato, Riccardo and and Atrial Fibrillation Survey",
    journal = "Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology",
    year = "2014",
    volume = "25",
    number = "10",
    pages = "1074-1081",
    publisher = "Wiley",
    issn = "1045-3873, 1540-8167",
    doi = "10.1111/jce.12462",
    keywords = "atrial fibrillation; catheter ablation; survey",
    abstract = "Survey on Atrial Fibrillation Ablation
BackgroundAtrial fibrillation (AF) ablation is widely adopted. Our aim
was to conduct a prospective multicenter survey to verify patients’
characteristics, approaches, and technologies adopted across Europe.
Methods and ResultsA total of 35 centers in 12 countries actively
participated in the study and 940 patients (median age 60 years) were
enrolled. AF was paroxysmal, persistent, and long-lasting persistent in
52.4%, 36%, and 11.6% of patients, respectively; 95.5% of patients
were symptomatic and 91.4% were refractory to antiarrhythmic therapy.
Redo procedures were performed in 20.9%. Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI)
emerged as the cornerstone of ablative therapy and has been performed in
98.7% of procedures, with confirmation of PVI in 92.9% of cases. The
ablation of nonparoxysmal AF was not generally limited to isolating the
PVs and several adjunctive approaches are adopted, particularly in the
case of long-lasting persistent AF. Linear lesions or elimination of
complex fractionated atrial electrograms were more frequently added.
Circular mapping catheters and imaging techniques were seen to be used
in about two-thirds of cases. Radiofrequency energy was delivered
through open irrigated catheters in 68% of cases.
ConclusionsEuropean centers are largely following the recommendations of
the guidelines and the expert consensus documents for AF ablation. AF
ablation is mainly performed in relatively young patients with
symptomatic drug refractory AF and no or minimal heart disease. Patients
with paroxysmal AF are the most frequently treated with a quite uniform
ablative approach across Europe. A less standardized approach was
observed in nonparoxysmal AF patients."
}