Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Comparing Antiarrhythmic Drugs and Catheter Ablation for Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation

Citation : Andreas Rillig, Tina Lin, Feifan Ouyang, Karl-Heinz Kuck, Roland Richard Tilz

In the past years, catheter ablation has evolved into an effective treatment option for symptomatic, drug-resistant atrial fibrillation (AF) and it has recently been implemented as a primary treatment strategy for patients with paroxysmal AF. Although a significant number of studies have evaluated the potential benefits of catheter ablation compared with anti-arrhythmic drug (AAD)-therapy, to date, there are only a small number of randomized controlled trials in the literature, and several issues remain unsolved. The aim of this review is to analyze the current literature regarding this important issue and further discuss the question, whether catheter ablation may be more beneficial when compared to AAD therapy.

No comments: