Quality of life benefits from arrhythmia ablation: A longitudinal study using the C-CAP questionnaire and EQ5D

Aims To investigate long-term efficacy of cardiac ablation for symptomatic arrhythmia by gathering generic and arrhythmia-related quality of life data using patient-reported outcome measures before and after ablation. Methods Consecutive patients undergoing cardiac ablation procedures at three sites in the United Kingdom were enrolled (n = 561). Data were collected at baseline, at 8-16 weeks, and 12 months after the ablation with responses from 390 patients received at all three time points. Nonparametric tests were used to identify any changes in patient outcomes due to nonnormal data. Results There were significant improvements in symptom severity, impact on life scores, EQ-5D-5L indices, and visual analogue score (VAS) scores at pre- versus 3 months and at preablation versus 1 year. Impact on life score showed additional improvement at 1 year versus 3 months, while improvements in symptom severity, EQ-5D-5L indices, and VAS scores continued to be maintained between 3 months and 1 year. Conclusion Cardiac ablation provides patients with arrhythmias relief from symptoms, and results in an improvement in quality of life. Improvements observed at 3 months are maintained at 1 year follow-up.