Complications:
All complications are displayed in Table 2. A total of n=24 steam pops
was detected in n=18 patients (39.1%). No pericardial tamponade
occurred. No atrioesophageal fistula was reported. No periprocedural
thromboembolic complications occurred. On cMRI scans, n=4 patients
(17.4%) showed silent cerebral lesion (SCL). Comparing patients with
steam pop and without revealed no significant difference in terms of SCL
with n=2 in each group (p=0.58)(Figure 3).
A total of 3365 ablation lesions where created using 90watts/ 4 seconds.
During 24 ablation lesions a steam pop occurred. Steam pops occurred
after 3.6 seconds compared to 3.9 seconds of lesions without a steam
pop. In an univariate analysis steam pop lesions had significantly
higher impedance drops of 10.4% +/- 2.1% compared to 9.4% +/- 2.4%
in lesions without a steam pop (measured from baseline impedance). Steam
pops occurred in different locations without a local accumulation.