Study Design
After approval from our Institutional Review Board, data were collected
on all consecutive patients from a single center that underwent left
atrial ablation procedures performed between March
18th, 2018 and December 18th, 2018.
As part of a quality improvement effort to standardize peri-procedural
anticoagulation, a dosing protocol was initiated on August
9th, 2018. Outcomes before (usual care), and after
protocol implementation (protocol guided) were confirmed by chart review
and compared. All patients were evaluated after protocol initiation, and
a retrospective comparison group (usual care) was collected on
consecutive patients preceding protocol initiation. Demographic data,
clinical characteristics and administered medications were recorded, as
well as anticoagulation outcomes and procedural complications. Left
atrial ablation was performed via transseptal access, and UFH was used
for anticoagulation. If patients underwent more than one ablation within
the data collection time period, only the first procedure data were
included to eliminate dosing bias. During the data collection period, a
total of 8 operators performed left atrial ablation procedures.