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Updated: Feb 10, 2026

Robotic Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation
Published on: May 29, 2015
Decreased operator X-ray exposure by optimized fluoroscopy during radiofrequency ablation of common atrial flutter
A Zedira1, J Greffier2, X Brunet1
1Department of Cardiology, centre hospitalier universitaire de Nîmes, Nîmes, France.
Purpose:
To evaluate operator and patient irradiation during radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of common atrial flutter (AF) using three different fluoroscopy settings.
Material And Method:
A total of 38 patients who underwent RFA of AF with three different fluoroscopy settings (low dose, standard dose and collimated field) were included. Twelve patients (11 men, 1 woman; mean age, 67±12 [SD]years) were included in the low dose group (3.75 frames per second), 13 patients (13 men; mean age, 66±8 [SD]years) were included in the standard dose group (7.5 frames per second) and 13 patients (13 men; mean age, 71±12 [SD]years) were included in the collimated field group (7.5 frames per second). Operator and patient exposure were compared between groups.
Result:
No differences in procedure time and radiation exposure were found between the three groups. In the low dose group, mean operator X-ray exposures of eye-lens (4.7±2.9 [SD]μSv/h; range: 0.9-10.5μSv/h), whole body (1.6±1.2 [SD]μSv/h; range 0.5-3.6μSv/h) and hand skin (11.1±10.8 [SD] μSv/h; range 2.4-35.4μSv/h) were significantly lower than those in the standard dose group (P<0.001). Significant patient dose reduction was found between low dose group (0.7±0.4 [SD]Gy/h; range: 0.3-0.9Gy/h) and standard (1.7±0.5 [SD]Gy/h; range: 0.8 to 3.9Gy/h) and collimated (1.8±0.5 [SD]Gy/h; range: 0.7-3.0Gy/h) groups (P<0.01).
Conclusion:
The use of a low dose setting (3.75 f/s) during fluoroscopy dramatically reduces operator's irradiation during RFA of AF by a mean of 90%.
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