Impact of Catheter Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation on Quality of Life

Atrial fibrillation is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia in adults. It is a complex arrhythmia leading to increased morbidity and mortality requiring thorough assessment and classification to guide therapy and to assess whether to pursue rate or rhythm control therapy. To obtain rhythm control, several strategies are available with different advantages and disadvantages concerning success rate and safety. Apart from antiarrhythmic drugs, catheter ablation is a well-established invasive therapy to treat atrial fibrillation. As quality of life is a very important factor to pursue rhythm control, several studies investigated on the specific impact of catheter ablation on quality of life. Catheter ablation shows a beneficial effect on quality of life in paroxysmal and persistent atrial fibrillation independent of the timepoint and strategy of catheter ablation.