Study Finds Pulsed Field Ablation a Safe Treatment for Atrial Fibrillation

A new study shows that pulsed field ablation (PFA) is safe for treating patients with common types of atrial fibrillation (AF). Mount Sinai's website has the release.

The findings, which show positive safety outcomes including “no significant risk of esophageal damage,” could lead to “more frequent use of PFA instead of conventional therapies to manage AF patients.” Senior author Vivek Reddy emphasizes that the study “provides confidence that, unlike conventional thermal ablation, PFA with the pentaspline catheter does not cause the most feared complication of AF ablation—esophageal damage—nor does it cause pulmonary vein stenosis or persistent injury to the diaphragm.” He also wrote that “other general complications were…rare.”

2.7 million Americans live with some form of AF. A procedure called catheter ablation is used to treat it, and two types of ablation are currently in common use, one of which using heat energy and the other using cold energy to “eliminate the problem area” in the heart. Both of those types are “associated with increased risk of potential complications,” whereas PFA is “more precise” than those types and “does not cause damage to the esophagus, pulmonary veins, or phrenic nerve.”

The study analyzed 17,642 patients after undergoing PFA procedures in 2021. There was a “1% overall major complication rate, and more specifically, rates of 0.36% for pericardial tamponade, 0.30% for vascular complications, 0.12% for stroke, and 0.03% for death. Unexpected complications of PFA were coronary arterial spasm (0.14% ) and hemolysis-related acute renal failure necessitating hemodialysis (0.03% ).”