Sandra Higham

“The development of an atrial-oesophageal fistula is a very rare, but known, risk of the ablation procedure (developing in around 0.01-0.2% of cases of percutaneous ablation and around 1-1.5% of cases of surgical ablation).”

“If an atrial-oesophageal fistula does develop, it has a very high mortality rate (reported to be 67-100%).”

“Diagnosing an atrial-oesophageal fistula can be difficult, especially in an acute medical setting, given its range of non-specific symptoms and duration of onset, and the lack of awareness within the wider medical profession of such a fistula being a risk of the ablation procedure.”