Priority II. Equivocal
Equivocal procedures and scenarios should ideally be postponed. There
may be rare circumstances where a compelling reason exists if there is
an intermediate chance for short-term benefit due to a substantial
non-mortality risk, such as rehospitalization. Preventing
rehospitalization is a reasonable goal to decrease risk of infection via
social distancing. These should likely only be considered where the
prevalence of COVID-19 is low and hospitals do not have shortages of
intensive care unit beds and mechanical ventilators. Structured
follow-up for patients with procedures put on hold is essential.
Catheter ablation for antiarrhythmic-refractory persistent rapid atrial
fibrillation with heart failure and recent recurrent hospitalizations,
particularly possible tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy, is a situation
that may be considered non-elective. Conversely, catheter ablation for
amiodarone-refractory ischemic ventricular tachycardia with
mild-to-moderate symptoms that terminated with antitachycardia pacing
has a class I recommendation11, but may be elective.