Cateheter ablation treatment of atrioventricular nodal re-entrant tachycardia

Objectives: In this study, we aimed to evaluate our clinicalexperience about the catheter ablation of atrioventricularnodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT) includingcomplications and long-term outcomes.Materials and Methods: The study population consistedof 166 patients with AVNRT, 52 of whom from hospital-1and 114 of who from hospital-2. Radio-frequency (RF)ablation therapy was applied after the basic electrophysiologystudy. Complications in RF ablation and long-termrecurrences were noted.Results: More than 90% of the patients had symptomspersisting for more than one year and again more than90% of those were suffering at least 2 episodes per month.The success rate of RF ablation was 98.2% for the entirestudy population. The recurrence rate was observed tobe 3% (n=5) throughout the follow-up period. In the multivariateCox regression analysis; young age, operator`sexperience (Hospital 1 vs. 2), and presence of atypicalAVNRT were the independent predictors of long-term recurrence.Major complications related to AVNRT ablationare not encountered frequently. Death, myocardial infarctionand stroke were not seen in any of the patients, however,two patients developed deep vein thrombosis. Minorcomplications in RF ablation included asymptomatic minimal/mild pericardial effusion (n=5), femoral hematoma requiringno transfusion (n=5) and transient AV block (n=5).Atrio-ventricular block requiring permanent pacemakerimplantation was found only in one patient (0.6%).Conclusion: Radio-frequency catheter ablation in patientswith AVNRT appears to be a safe and effectivemethod. The presence of atypical AVNRT, young age andoperator`s experience were observed to be the independentpredictors of long-term recurrence.