Quality of life benefits from arrhythmia ablation: A longitudinal study using the C‐CAP questionnaire and EQ5D

AIMS To investigate long term efficacy of cardiac ablation for symptomatic arrhythmia by gathering generic and arrhythmia related quality of life data using patient reported outcome measures before and after ablation. METHODS Consecutive patients undergoing cardiac ablation procedures at three sites in the UK were enrolled (n = 561). Data were collected at baseline, at 8-16 weeks and 12 months after the ablation with responses from 390 patients received at all three time points. Non-parametric tests were used to identify any changes in patient outcomes due to non-normal data. RESULTS There were significant improvements in symptom severity, impact on life scores, EQ-5D-5L indices and VAS scores at pre- versus three months and at pre-ablation versus 1 year. Impact on life score showed additional improvement at 1 year versus three months, while improvements in symptom severity, EQ-5D-5L indices and VAS scores continued to be maintained between 3 months and 1 year. CONCLUSION Cardiac ablation provides patients with arrhythmias relief from symptoms, and results in an improvement in quality of life. Improvements observed at 3 months are maintained at 1 year follow up. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.