Figure 4.
Meta-analysis of incident rate ratios for arrhythmia recurrence in prospective randomized trials. Summary data for the three randomized controlled trials of thoracoscopic vs. catheter ablation for AF. Note that each study had different inclusion criteria, ablation strategies, and use of antiarrhythmic drug therapy during follow-up. The incidence rate ratio is the rate of arrhythmia recurrence weighted by person-months of follow-up comparing thoracoscopic with catheter ablation. Cochrane risk of bias domains are (from left to right): sequence generation, allocation concealment, blinding, incomplete outcome data, selective reporting and other threats to validity; scored as low risk (L), unclear risk (U), or high risk (H) of bias. AF, atrial fibrillation; CI, confidence interval; I2, heterogeneity.