Catheter ablation of AF has been performed in Bordeaux since 1994. As of October 2011, over 10500 patients had been treated, with at least ten cases of atrial flutter or fibrillation being treated every week. The clinical characteristics of patients cover a wide spectrum of age (15-82, average age 52) with 78% male and 22 % female, and 50 % of paroxysmal versus 50 % of persistent/chronic AF. All patients were resistant or intolerant to an average of 3 antiarrhythmic drugs and experienced at least weekly episodes of AF at their referral.

 

 

Some patients had documented sinus pauses following AF paroxysms and were cured by AF ablation, thus avoiding the need for pacemaker implantation.

Twelve per cent reported a previous embolic event, most in the brain circulation.

In patients with heart failure and permanent AF, the restoration of sinus rhythm is associated with a significant improvement in ventricular function in 80 % of cases.