2024 EHRA/HRS/APHRS/LAHRS Expert Consensus on Catheter and Surgical Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation
Interview With Edward Gerstenfeld, MD, MS
Interview With Edward Gerstenfeld, MD, MS
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Interview by Jodie Elrod
Watch as Edward Gerstenfeld, MD, MS, from UCSF Health, discusses his presentation at Western AF 2025.
Transcripts
Tell us about your presentation at the Western AFib Symposium 2025.
Hi, I'm Ed Gerstenfeld. I'm the Director of Electrophysiology at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). I was involved as the vice chair of the latest consensus document on catheter and surgical ablation of atrial fibrillation (AFib). So, I am giving a highlight of the changes from the prior documents and what's new in terms of consensus opinions about ablation of AFib.
What are the take-home messages you would like viewers to leave with?
I think there are probably the top 3. Number one is that catheter ablation is now finally a class I, which is the highest level of evidence indication for first-line therapy for AFib. So, for patients who don't want to try antiarrhythmic drugs for symptomatic paroxysmal AFib, catheter ablation is now accepted as first-line therapy. The second is the blanking period, which is the period after ablation where we don't count early recurrences since it may just be irritability. That has always been 3 months in the past, and based on more recent data, we've shortened that to 8 weeks after ablation. The third change is taking some of the emphasis away from the 30-second endpoint after ablation of AFib recurrences, which is somewhat artificial, towards reporting more about AFib burden and recognizing that some patients may have rare episodes but clinically they're doing well. So, reporting AFib burden in addition to the more classic 30-second endpoint.
The transcripts have been edited for clarity and length.
