A meta-analysis of manual versus remote magnetic navigation for ventricular tachycardia ablation

There are limited studies on the safety and efficacy of remote magnetic navigation (RMN) versus manual navigation (MAN) in ventricular tachycardia (VT) ablation. A comprehensive literature search was performed using the keywords VT ablation, stereotaxis, RMN and MAN in Pubmed, Ebsco, Web of Science, Cochrane, and Google scholar databases. The analysis included seven studies (one randomized, three prospective observational, and three retrospective) including 779 patients [both structural heart disease (SHD) and idiopathic VT] comparing RMN (N = 433) and MAN (N = 339) in VT ablation. The primary end point of long-term VT recurrence was significantly lower with RMN (OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.44–0.85, p = 0.003) compared with MAN. Other end points of acute procedural success (OR 2.13, 95% CI 1.40–3.23, p = 0.0004) was significantly higher with RMN compared with MAN. Fluoroscopy [mean difference −10.42, 95% CI −12.7 to −8.1, p