Procedural outcomes
The overall rate of complication was 9.3%. No procedure-related deaths were reported. A low incidence of thromboembolism (0.7%) was observed, with only one patient on interrupted VKA (with heparin bridging) suffering from an ischemic stroke immediately after the ablation with minor neurological sequalae. No thromboembolic events were reported in the NOAC group.
There was a numerically higher rate of major bleeding with VKA versus NOAC (6.8% vs. 1.4%, respectively; p=0.09); after excluding patients on interrupted VKA with heparin bridging the numerical difference was confirmed (5.8% vs. 1.4%, p=0.16). The overall rate of pericardial effusion requiring pericardiocentesis was 4.0%, and was numerically higher in the VKA versus NOAC group (4.5% vs 1.4%, respectively; p=0.11). Puncture complications fulfilling major bleeding criteria were observed in 3 patients (1.3%) on VKA. The incidence of minor bleeding was low (0.9%) and comparable between the two groups. These results are shown in Table 3 and S-Table 4.