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Catheter ablation is an accepted procedure for patients with atrial fibrillation in whom medical treatment is ineffective. Currently, the only indication for AF ablation is impaired quality of life (QOL); ablation is not recommended for patients without symptoms who merely wish to stop taking warfarin. Individuals with AF have an increased mortality risk, and no AF treatment, including ablation, has been shown to reduce that risk. The AF ablation procedure itself carries a variety of risks. However, the incidence of death from complications of AF ablation has not been determined, because the data are from single-center or small multicenter trials.
In this international survey of 162 centers, 32,569 patients underwent 45,115 AF ablation proce…