Exploring the impact of catheter ablation on health care resource utilisation of atrial fibrillation patients

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia worldwide, associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Catheter ablation (CA) has emerged as an effective treatment for AF, but its impact on healthcare resource utilization remains unexplored.

This study aimed to assess the impact of CA on healthcare resource utilization in AF patients using Danish nationwide registries.

This study was designed as a nationwide cohort study aiming to identify all Danish adults who received first-time CA for the indication of AF between January 1st, 2010, and December 31st, 2022. To quantify resource utilization within this group, all hospital admissions, outpatient visits, and changes in anti arrhythmic drugs (AAD) were identified 2 years before and after inclusion into the study.

Results were stratified by time from diagnosis to ablation (DAT) in four categories: <180 days, 180-364 days, 364-729 days, and >730 days.

We identified 28,231 Danish adults who underwent first-time CA for AF between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2023. Comparing AAD usage among these groups revealed that while AAD usage increased in the year prior to and following ablation in all groups, a significant drop was observed after 2 years. Overall AAD usage was lowest for patients in the shorter DAT groups and increased incrementally with time. Similarly, hospitalizations and outpatient contacts increased consistently with increasing DAT. Lastly, the average duration of all-cause admissions in days also increased incrementally with increasing DAT.

This study revealed that patients with shorter DAT had lower overall AAD usage, fewer hospitalizations, and shorter hospital stays compared to those with longer delays. These observations suggest that earlier intervention with CA may lead to more efficient use of healthcare resources

Number of Hospitalisations by DAT