Risk Factors for Early Recurrence Following Ablation for Accessory Pathways: The Role of Consolidation Lesions

Background: Atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia is common in children. Catheter ablation is increasingly used as a first-line therapy with a high acute success rate, but recurrence during follow-up remains a concern. The aim of this study was to identify risk factors for recurrence after accessory pathway (AP) ablation. Methods: Retrospective cohort study including patients who underwent AP ablation between 2013 and 2018. Cox proportional hazards model was used to examine the association between patient and procedural characteristics and recurrence during follow-up. Results: From 558 AP ablation procedure, 542 (97%) were acutely successful. During a median follow-up of 0.4 (interquartile range, 0.1–1.4) years, there were 42 (8%) patients with documented recurrence. On univariate analysis, early recurrence was associated with younger age, congenital heart disease, multiple AP, AP location (right sided and posteroseptal versus left sided), cryoablation (versus radiofrequency), empirical ablation, the lack of full power radiofrequency lesions ( Conclusions: In our institutional experience, radiofrequency consolidation time