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2-012 A systematic review and meta-analysis of a novel cryoablation system for pulmonary vein isolation in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation

heartjnl · 2025-08-13 · canonical JSON source

14 visible annotations · policy: published · automated confidence ≥ 75.00%

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Introduction Cryoablation technologies have transformed the treatment of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, with pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) being a key treatment. Technical advancements, including cryoballoon compliance, stable pressure and size during ablation and improved cooling dynamics, have sparked interest in the recently introduced POLARx cryoablation system. These technological advancements could improve procedural efficacy and outcomes, potentially surpassing those achieved with the widely adopted Arctic Front Advance Pro (AFA-Pro) system. Comparative data between these two systems are still scarce. Therefore, we used a meta-analytic method to compare these two cryoablation systems in patients undergoing PVI for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.Methods On December 6, 2024, a thorough literature search was carried out using PRISMA principles across Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and PubMed. ‘POLARx’, ‘Arctic Front Advance Pro’, and ‘cryoablation’ were among the search terms used. We extracted information on procedure time, fluoroscopy time and nadir temperatures. For continuous data, pooled mean differences (MD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were computed. To account for the anticipated heterogeneity, we employed a random-effects model. The Comprehensive Meta-Analysis version 3 software was used for all statistical analyses, and the Newcastle-Ottawa scale was used to evaluate the quality of the studies.Results We included three observational studies (n=379, mean age: 61.79 years; 36.9% female) from 792 screened records. All studies had some risk of bias. The POLARx system demonstrated statistically significant reductions in procedure time (n=379, MD: -10.95 minutes, 95% CI: -20.7 to -1.15, p=0.02) and fluoroscopy time (n=327, MD: -2.7 minutes, 95% CI: -5.25 to -0.14, p=0.03) compared to AFA-Pro. POLARx also achieved a markedly lower total nadir temperature (n=379, MD: -8.66°C, 95% CI: -10.94 to -6.39, p=0.000).Conclusions The POLARx system shows potential superiority to the AFA-Pro system in terms of procedure and fluoroscopy times as well as total nadir temperature. However, we recommend conducting further research to validate these findings.