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.