Follow-up
Patients were followed up with clinical visits and 24-hour Holter
monitoring at 3, 6 and 12 months. Any arrhythmia lasting
>30 seconds, according to patients’ symptoms or documented
on Holter monitoring, was considered a recurrence. A blanking period of
3 months, in which recurrences were mostly treated with electrical
cardioversion, was considered. After the 3-month blanking period,
paroxysmal and well tolerated short episodes of tachycardia were managed
with medication or a wait-and-see strategy. Persistent or bad tolerated
episodes were treated with repeat ablation, electrical cardioversion or
atrioventricular node ablation and pacemaker implant, depending on the
presumed risk of posterior recurrences according to the grade of atrial
disease.
In patients taking rhythm control drugs before the procedure, these were
kept during the blanking period, and afterwards discontinued if no
recurrences had occurred; these drugs might be continued up to 3
additional months (until the 6-month follow-up visit) at the discretion
of the attending physician.