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AF ablation decreases hospitalizations
Among patients who underwent catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation, CV hospitalizations were less frequent in the year after the procedure than in the year before, researchers reported.
The researchers analyzed 2,720 patients (mean age, 60 years; 29% women) from the Truven Health MarketScan data set who underwent catheter ablation for AF between 2008 and 2014 and for whom data were available from 1 year before the procedure to 1 year after it.
The primary outcome was hospitalization. The researchers also determined predictors of hospitalization.
All-cause hospitalizations declined from 1,669 in the year before catheter ablation to 1,034 in the year after it, for a 38% decrease (P < .001), Jia Guo, BS, from the Center for Arrhythmia Care, Heart and Vascular Center, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, and colleagues wrote.
The results were driven by a reduction of 55.5% in arrhythmia-related hospitalizations (P < .001) and to some extent by a 16.4% reduction in non-arrhythmic CV hospitalizations (P = .038), according to the researchers.
A major contributor to the drop in nonarrhythmic CV hospitalizations was a 43% reduction in HF hospitalizations (P = .019), they wrote.
There was no difference in non-CV hospitalizations before and after the procedure (P = .177).
Sex had no effect on hospitalization rates, which “is notable because women are known to have higher risk of AF ablation procedural complications than men,” Guo and colleagues wrote.
Guo and colleagues identified the following predictors of decline in arrhythmic hospitalization: age younger than 55 years (OR = 1.43; P < .001), obstructive sleep apnea (OR = 1.38; P < .001) and HF (OR = 1.29; P = .024).
In the period after the procedure, rates of antiarrhythmic drug use were 37.5% lower than in the period before the procedure (P < .001).
“Taken together, these findings suggest AF ablation favorably reduces recurrent hospitalization in the community setting by reducing the risk of AF and its sequelae,” Guo and colleagues wrote. – by Erik Swain
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.