Even in Bordeaux, expensive robots prove no better than the human hands, in AF ablation.
As presented last week at HRS, the justifiably famous Bordeaux group compared the highly proclaimed (especially in the mainstream media) robotic ablation system against the conventional human approach, and concluded the following…
Conclusions: MNS (ed. note: MNS=robot) guided PVI in patients with PAF with newly available irrigated-tip magnetic catheter is feasible and safe. However, the radiofrequency, fluoroscopy and procedural times are significantly higher than the conventional approach.
‘Conventional approach’ means skilled humans are moving the catheters.
There are no more believable AF centers than the group at Bordeaux, France. Like basketball is to Springfield, MA, or baseball to Cooperstown, NY, AF ablation was founded in Bordeaux. It was their original NEJM report that began the AF ablation journey in 1998.
It is not just their pioneering spirit that has garnered the Bordeaux group the respect of the EP community, but more importantly, their consistently expressed common sense and realistic approach to AF therapy.
JMM