Introduction: Substantial progress in catheter ablation technique and safety has been made, giving the elderly an additional treatment option and chance for an improved quality of life. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of age on the recurrence of atrial flutter (AFL) after a successful radiofrequency ablation, comparing the results of elderly people with those who are not.
Methods: 408 consecutive patients (age: 19–91 years) with common AFL who underwent successfully radiofrequency ablation were included. The primary end-point was the AFL recurrence. We also analyzed the occurrence of atrial fibrillation, ischemic stroke and death. We use univariate and multivariate Hazard Ratio (HR) analysis. Cumulative probability of freedom from recurrence of AFL was calculated with the Kaplan–Meier method.
Results: : Patients were followed for a mean of 5.9 ± 3.1 years. 75 from 408 patients died, 55 presented AFL recurrence during the follow-up (5.6% in the first year and 9.1% within the first two years), 172 presented AF, and 17 had a stroke. Patients =75 years who underwent succesful ablation of common AFL have less recurrences than those younger patients, after adjust by confounding variables (HR 0.352, CI 95% 0.127-0.973, p=0.044). The age = 75 years was not associated to AF incidence (HR 0.841, 95% CI 0.554-1.277, p=0.417), or stroke (HR 1.500, CI 95% 0.488-4.607, p=0.476) or death (HR 1.639, CI 95% 0,963-2.790, p=0.066).
Conclusions: Radiofrequency ablation of common AFL is a safe technique that should not be dismissed in the elderly patient.