Quality of Life after Ablation vs Medication Therapy in Patients With Supraventricular Tachycardia

Abstract

Objective: Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) is the most common presentation of patients at cardiac emergency department. This study aims to determine the quality of life in patients with supraventricular tachycardia after they treated with medicines vs. ablation therapy.
 Methods: This prospective clinical comparative study was held at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD). Patients 18 years or older of either gender presenting with the two most common variants of SVT i.e. Atrioventricular nodal reentry tachycardia (AVNRT) and Atrioventricular reentry tachycardia (AVRT) were eligible to be included into the study. Once stabilized at the emergency department (ED) the patients were given the option to undergo electrophysiology study and radiofrequency ablation (EPS and RFA) (group A) or opt for medications only (group B). Quality of life (sense of personal well being, impact on social life, fear of mortality or anxiety about the disease, recurrence of episodes of arrhythmia, and visits to ED) was assessed through a questionnaire filled after six months of receiving treatment.
 Results: A total of 120 patients were included into our study. Group A and group B were evenly divided with 60 patients each. The overall mean age of the participants and duration of cardiac illness were 44.67±18.91 and 5.42±3.13 years, respectively. Patients who received EPS and RFA (group A) had superior and statistically significant scores (better QoL) for sense of personal well being, impact on social life, fear of mortality or anxiety levels, recurrence of arrhythmia, and visits to the ED as compared to those who received medications alone, p<0.05.
 Conclusion: EPS and RFA vastly improved the quality of life in patients with SVT post treatment. Medications alone are associated with a high number of post treatment sequels and adverse events; therefore they are best avoided in patients with SVT.

Quality of life among patients with supraventricular tachycardia post radiofrequency cardiac ablation in Jordan

“…In this study, the QoL was assessed before and 1 month after the procedure, and there was a significant increase in all domains compared to baseline. This result is similar to previous studies [ 16 , 19 , 28 , 29 , 32 - 34 ]. These improvements were further confirmed by the outcomes of SF-36 measurements, according to which patients declared fewer symptoms, limited duration, and decreased frequency of episodes at the second measurement.…”

“…RFCA is considered a safe and effective procedure. This is consistent with much of the literature [ 5 , 28 , 29 , 35 ]. The patients who had a successful ablation, declared fewer symptoms, had no complications, resumed working freely without fearing an episode attack of SVT, and had a higher QoL than patients who did not meet the outcome of the ablation procedure.…”

“…Patients who suffer from recurrent and frequent arrhythmia episodes have a poor QoL after ablation because they never know when the next attack will occur. Many researchers reported similar results [ 13 , 16 , 29 , 31 , 34 ]. It might be expected to have a low QoL for patients with SVT related to recurrent episodes and long-term episodes.…”