(Prognosis)
What is the Outcome of Atrial Fibrillation?
Contrary to popular belief AF is not benign. The mortality rate rises by up to 1.9
times
in patients with AF, the reason for which we do not know. There have been a number of studies examining whether restoring sinus rhythm is better than just controlling rate in AF and these have all shown that controlling rate is a policy that is as good or better than controlling rhythm. HOWEVER these studies all examined conventional (drugs and cardioversion) methods of treatment and many of the patients in the rhythm control group failed to stay in sinus rhythm. Furthermore anticoagulation was stopped too soon and many patients who went back into AF suffered stroke. It has been shown that if the patient does stay in sinus rhythm they have a lower mortality than those in AF and there is early evidence that catheter ablation can reduce mortality and improve patient symptoms. Because this is a relatively new technique for treating AF more thorough evidence is yet to be collected to demonstrate whether catheter ablation eliminates the mortality risk of AF.
For the results of Catheter Ablation - Click here
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