Prospective Elimination Of Distal Coronary Sinus-Left Atrial Connections for Atrial Fibrillation Ablation Trial

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia affecting millions of people in the US and around the world. Over the last 20 years, catheter based AF ablation has been widely adopted. However, long-term success rates fhave been reported to be as low as 50% and 20% for paroxysmal and persistent AF, respectively. To achieve permanent arrhythmia suppression, repeated ablation procedures are often needed. Prior work indicates that distal connections between coronary sinus musculature and the left atrium provide a substrate for single or multiple reentry beats as a trigger for atrial fibrillation. In this prospective randomized trial the investigators will define the efficacy of elimination of distal connections between coronary sinus and left atrial musculature for suppression of recurrent atrial arrhythmias. Patients will be randomly assigned to standard of care ablation (pulmonary vein isolation and non pulmonary vein trigger ablations) alone, or standard of care ablation augmented by distal coronary sinus to left atrial connection elimination.