Late clinical outcome after successful radiofrequency catheter ablation ofaccessory pathways

Aims To evaluate the long-term clinical results of patients who underwent s uccessful radiofrequency catheter ablation of a symptomatic drug-resistant accessory-pathway-mediated tachycardia. Methods and Results Clinical follow-up was done by direct contact with the patients and their physicians. One hundred and eighty consecutive patients (113 males, 67 females) were followed during a median period of 481 months. There were seven procedure related complications (4%). During the follow-u p period, 79% of the patients remained asymptomatic; 14% complained of shor t bouts of palpitations due to isolated or short runs of atrial or ventricu lar premature beats; 7% had sustained palpitations due either to accessory pathway recurrence (4%) or supraventricular tachyarrhythmias not associated with an accessory pathway (3%). Symptoms due to accessory path-way recurre nce appeared either in the first month following the ablation or at least l ater than 3 months when sustained supraventricular arrhythmias occurred rel ated to another cause. Conclusions Initially successful radiofrequency catheter ablation has a low , long-term recurrence rare (4%). Recurrence of accessory-pathway-mediated tachycardia is observed during the first month while later symptoms suggest supraventricular arrhythmias from another cause. (Eur Heart J 2001; 22: 60 5-609). (C) 2001 The European Society of Cardiology.