Circulation. Arrhythmia and electrophysiology
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Circ Arrhythm Electrophysiol · May 2019
Randomized Controlled TrialRESCUE-AF in Patients Undergoing Atrial Fibrillation Ablation: The RESCUE-AF Trial
Although contact force (CF)–sensing catheters improve procedural effectiveness and safety of atrial fibrillation ablation, recent reports documented a higher incidence of atrioesophageal fistula formation relative to ablation with non–CF-sensing catheters.The present study was to assess whether restricting CF to <20 g reduced risk for esophageal injury (EI) in patients with atrial fibrillation undergoing circumferential pulmonary vein isolation. ⋯ Risk for EI was minimized when CF was restricted to <20 g at the posterior left atrial wall, where the circumferential pulmonary vein isolation lesion set and the course of the esophagus overlapped in all subjects.