Cateheter ablation treatment of atrioventricular nodal re-entrant tachycardia.

Objectives: In this study, we aimed to evaluate our clinical experience about the catheter ablation of atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT) including complications and long-term outcomes. Materials and Methods: The study population consisted of 166 patients with AVNRT, 52 of whom from hospital-1 and 114 of who from hospital-2. Radio-frequency (RF) ablation therapy was applied after the basic electrophysiology study. Complications in RF ablation and long-term recurrences were noted. Results: More than 90% of the patients had symptoms persisting for more than one year and again more than 90% of those were suffering at least 2 episodes per month. The success rate of RF ablation was 98.2% for the entire study population. The recurrence rate was observed to be 3% (n=5) throughout the follow-up period. In the multivariate Cox regression analysis; young age, operator's experience (Hospital 1 vs. 2), and presence of atypical AVNRT were the independent predictors of long-term recurrence. Major complications related to AVNRT ablation are not encountered frequently. Death, myocardial infarction and stroke were not seen in any of the patients, however, two patients developed deep vein thrombosis. Minor complications in RF ablation included asymptomatic minimal/ mild pericardial effusion (n=5), femoral hematoma requiring no transfusion (n=5) and transient AV block (n=5). Atrio-ventricular block requiring permanent pacemaker implantation was found only in one patient (0.6%). Conclusion: Radio-frequency catheter ablation in patients with AVNRT appears to be a safe and effective method. The presence of atypical AVNRT, young age and operator's experience were observed to be the independent predictors of long-term recurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]