Ablation of atrial tachycardia and atrial flutter in heart failure.

Atrial tachycardia and atrial flutter are common tachyarrhythmias in the heart failure population. They commonly lead to, exacerbate, and increase the morbidity and mortality associated with heart failure and, thereby, warrant urgent and early definitive therapy in the form of catheter ablation. Catheter ablation requires careful patient stabilization and extensive preprocedural planning, particularly with regards to anesthesia, strategy, catheter choice, mapping system, and fluid balance, to increase efficacy and limit adverse effects. Heart failure may limit the success of catheter ablation with higher reported recurrence rates, and in selected patients, a hybrid epicardial-endocardial ablation can be considered.