PhD defence Luca Aerts

Keywords: Atrial Fibrillation, AF Ablation, Transmurality, Sex Differences

"To be Transmural or Not: The key ingredient for succesful AF ablation"

Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia and can lead to symptoms, reduced quality of life, and an increased risk of complications. In patients with more advanced atrial fibrillation, maintaining normal heart rhythm over the long term is often challenging. This thesis investigated the effectiveness and durability of surgical ablation for the treatment of atrial fibrillation.

The studies focused primarily on hybrid ablation, in which a cardiac surgeon and cardiologist work together. The surgeon treats the heart from the outside, after which the cardiologist assesses from inside the heart whether the ablation is complete and, if necessary, performs additional ablation.

The results show that this combined approach provides effective, durable, and safe outcomes, particularly in patients with more advanced atrial fibrillation, and highlight the importance of complete, transmural, and verified ablation lesions. In addition, women were found to be clearly underrepresented among patients undergoing hybrid ablation, although outcomes were comparable between women and men.

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