Monday, January 3, 2011

Anticoagulation after Atrial Fibrillation Ablation: Many Blanks to Fill


Citation : Martin Fiala.Anticoagulation after Atrial Fibrillation Ablation: Many Blanks to Fill .JAFIB.2010 December;Volume 2 Issue(3): 853-855.

Long-term maintenance of sinus rhythm (SR) after catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF) has remained an open issue awaiting further relevant data. It is of paramount importance as our everyday decisions on discontinuing anticoagulation after ablation rest on the belief in the absence of clinically significant asymptomatic AF episodes and constant SR for the rest of the patient\'s life. Both aspects are difficult to ascertain, for the tools of truly continuous ECG monitoring are not comfortably applicable, and routine follow-up tends to thin out beyond 1 year in asymptomatic patients without apparent arrhythmia recurrences.

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