Collateral Damage: A Patient, a New Procedure and the Learning Curve

“I think all of us are aware of the fact that the published literature probably tremendously overestimates the true efficacy of catheter ablation…” – Hugh Calkins

“Do We Know What We’re Doing?”

Pulmonary Vein Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation was all the rage there for a while, according to Hugh Calkins. “For centers that wanted to be doing the ultimate novel unknown thing,” he told the FDA panel, “the latest thing is ablation of pulmonary veins. So the patients would be steered to that so they could build up their experience with that procedure.”

Not everyone was thrilled that patients were being steered toward the ultimate novel unknown thing so that electrophysiologists could build up their experience and tell colleagues at cocktail parties that they were au courant…