Long-term follow-up of the FAST-Trial; catheter ablation and surgical ablation for the treatment of atrial fibrillation

The FAST-trial is a randomized controlled trial comparing catheter ablation
(CA) and surgical ablation (SA) for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF)
in patients with drug-refractory paroxysmal or persistent AF, and/or enlarged
atria, and/or failed previous ablation. SA was found to be superior to CA in
achieving freedom from left atrial (LA) arrhythmia after a 12-month follow-up,
albeit at the cost of a higher adverse event rate. The aim of this follow-up
study is to ascertain whether the difference in effect between treatment with
CA and SA further increases and whether the adverse event rate will be stable
over time.

To evaluate the long-term (up to 5-years after procedure) efficacy and safety
of CA against SA in preventing the recurrence of LA arrhythmias in patients
with a history of paroxysmal and/or persistent AF

This is a multi-centre, prospective cohort study

This study involves participants having 7-day holter monitoring and one
hospital follow-up visit which will be combined. The visit will be performed at
the outpatient clinic of the participating centers. This registry is therefore
associated with only minimal burden and no risk for the patient. The patient*s
own cardiologist will be informed about the observations made by the holter
monitoring. Any new observations could obviously result in any change of
treatment. Generally, information from this study will benefit patients with
symptomatic drug-refractory paroxysmal or persistent AF and/or enlarged atria
and/or failed previous ablation, by allowing doctors to learn more about the
best way to treat these patients and improve patient quality of life.