Table 1

Case reports included

Author	Number of cases	Gender	Age (years)	Procedure	Post procedure day	Clinical presentation	Imaging	Findings	Diagnostic procedure	Treatment	Outcome
Sonmez et al4	1	Female	58	Surgical: LRFA—melo technique	22	Fever, shivers, numbness right arm	TTE	LA thrombus	EGD	Thrombectomy, pericardial sutures	Death
Doll et al5	1	Male	42	Surgical: IRAAF	10	Fever, postprandial TIA	TTE	Normal	Exploratory thoracotomy	Surgical	Survived
Doll et al5	1	Female	62	Surgical: IRAAF	6	Haematemesis	EGD	NA	Pathology	None	Death
Doll et al5	1	Male	59	Surgical: IRAAF	12	Fever, neurological symptoms	CT of the chest	Contrast and free air in the mediastinum	Exploratory Thoracotomy	Surgical	Survived
Doll et al5	1	Male	36	Surgical: IRAAF	11	Chest pain	CT of the chest	Oesophageal perforation	Exploratory thoracotomy	Surgical	Survived
Pappone et al6	1	Male	36	Percutaneous: CPVA	3	Fever, pleuritic chest pain, seizures	CT of the head	Bilateral ischaemia	CT of the chest	Surgical	Survived
Pappone et al6	1	Male	21	Percutaneous: CPVA	1	Fever, grand mal seizure	CT of the head	Unremarkable	TEE	Non-surgical	Death
Scanavacca et al7	1	Male	72	Percutaneous: RFA	22	Seizures, haematemesis	NA	NA	EGD	None	Death
Zirlik and Nordt8	1	Male	66	Surgical: MVR and Maze procedure	14	Collapse	CT of the head	Multiple intracerebral air emboli and infarctions	EGD	Non-surgical	Death
Bunch et al9	1	Male	48	Percutaneous: RFA	14	Fever, chest pain, dysphagia	CT of the chest	3 mm oesophageal perforation at level of atrium	EGD	Non-surgical	Survived
Schley et al10	1	Male	37	Percutaneous: RFA	25	Fever, grand mal seizure, status epilepticus	CT of the head	Ischaemic lesions	CT of the chest	Surgical	Survived
Cummings et al11	9	Male=4 Female=5	NA	Percutaneous: PRFA	12.3 (10–16)	Sepsis (n=9), neurological symptoms (n=8); angina (n=2); GI bleed (n=3)	CT of the head	Intravascular air (n=2)	CT of the chest 3/4; autopsy 6/9	Surgical=3; Non-surgical=6	Death (n=9)
Dagres et al12	5	Male=4 Female	51 (35–76)	Surgical RFA (n=4); Percutaneous RFA (n=1)	8–28	Fever (n=3), chest pain (n=2), hemiparesis (n=3), grand mal seizure (n=1), aphasia (n=1)	NA	NA	CT of the chest	Surgery (n=3); attempted surgery (n=2)	Death (n=2)
Preis et al13	1	Male	56	Percutaneous: PVI with RFA	38	Malaise, chills, bilateral arm weakness	TEE	No vegetations	CT of the chest	Surgical	Survived
Malamis et al14	1	Male	59	Percutaneous: RFA	35	Fever, altered mental status, petechiae	CT of the head	Negative	CT of the chest	Surgical	Death
D’Avila et al15	1	Male	56	Percutaneous: RFA	28	Epigastric pain, dysphagia, tactile fever; focal weakness, anomia, acalculia, agraphia	MRI of the brain	Multiple subacute embolic events	CT of the chest	Surgical	Survived
Borchert et al16	1	Male	59	Percutaneous: PVI with HIFU ablation catheter	10	Chest discomfort and atypical atrial flutter; VF arrest	MRI of the brain	Cerebral and cerebellar ischaemic lesions	CT of the chest	Surgical	Death
Ouchikhe et al17	1	Male	58	Percutaneous: RFA	21	Fever, confusion, meningitis	CT of the head	Bilateral hyperdense lesions (frontal, occipital, parietal and temporal)	TTE	Non-surgical	Death
Hazell et al18	1	Male	72	Percutaneous: PVI roofline mitral isthmus line CFAE ablation	16	Weakness, LOC, chest pain	CT of the head	Right parietal subcortical matter ischaemic changes	CT of the chest	Non-surgical	Death
Vijayaraman et al19	1	Male	45	Percutaneous: RFA with 3D reconstruction	10	Chest pain, low-grade fever, hypotension	CT of the chest	Fluid and air in pericardium and air in right superior mediastinum	Thoracotomy	Surgical	Survived
Baker et al20	1	Female	67	Surgical: RFA	20	Substernal chest pain, nausea, vomiting, confusion, fever, seizures, haematemesis	MRI of the brain	Multiple acute emboli	EGD	Non-surgical	Death
Cazavet et al21	1	Male	35	Percutaneous: RFA	38	Fever, chest pain, vomiting, left hemiplegia and seizures	CT of the head	Initially negative	CT of the chest	Surgical	Survived
Gilcrease et al22	1	Male	61	Percutaneous: RFA	10	Dysphagia, substernal chest pain, fever	CT of the chest	Ulcer at anterior portion oesophagus adjacent to PV	CT of the chest (after 2 months)	Surgical	Death
Khandhar et al23	1	Male	46	Percutaneous: RFA	27	Fever, pericarditis, followed by hemiparesis	CT of the chest	Normal	CT of the chest	Surgical	Survived
Siegel et al24	1	Male	41	Percutaneous: RFA	30	Fever, rigours, near syncope; followed by right-sided hemiparesis	MRI of the brain	Multifocal infarcts	CT of the chest	Surgical	Survived
Grubina et al25	1	Male	72	Percutaneous: RFA	9	Pleuritic chest pain	CT of the chest PAD #15	Pneumopericardium	EGD	Surgical	Survived
St Julien et al26	1	Male	59	Percutaneous: transeptal LA ablation with ThermoCool catheter	42	Chest pain, diaphoresis, headache, fever, altered mental status	TTE	No vegetations	CT of the chest	Surgical	Survived
Zellerhoff et al27	1	Male	63	Percutaneous: RFA with 3D mapping	14	Muscle weakness, generalised fatigue followed by fever and left-sided hemiparesis	CT of the head	Several large intracerebral lesions suspicious for air embolism	CT of the chest	Non-surgical	Death
Purerfellner et al28	1	Male	49	Percutaneous: RFA	29	Fever, chills, nausea, emesis, altered mental status, athetotic movements; skin changes, haematemesis	EGD	Unable to localise source of bleeding	EGD	Non-surgical	Death
Stockigt et al29	1	Male	78	Percutaneous: cryoballoon PV isolation	28	Fever, shivers, cough for 10 days, followed by neurological symptoms	CT of the chest and abdomen	Negative	Cardiac CT	Non-surgical	Survived
Tancevski et al30	1	Male	45	Percutaneous: transcatheter ablation	42	Fever, weakness, sensory loss of right limbs	CT of the chest and abdomen	CT of the chest: AEF; CT of the abdomen: multiple renal and splenic infarctions	CT surgery	Surgical	Survived
Haggerty et al31	1	Male	27	Percutaneous: PV RFA	22	Fever, chills, hypotension, haematemesis	CT of the chest	Pneumomediastinum adjacent to LA	CT surgery	Surgical	Survived
Kanth and Fang32	1	Female	69	Percutaneous: RFA	60	Sepsis, ischaemic stroke, melena	CT of the chest	AEF	EGD	Non-surgical	Death
Ben-David et al33	1	Female	73	Percutaneous: RFA	9	Pneumomediastinum	UGI series	4 mm oesophageal perforation at 6 cm from GEJ	EGD	Non-surgical	Death
Hartman et al34	1	Male	62	Percutaneous: RFA	30	Odynophagia, fever, chills, rigours, syncope	Cardiac catheterisation	Negative	CT of the chest	Surgical	Survived
Zini et al35	1	Male	44	Percutaneous: RFA	–	Altered mental status, stupor	CT of the head	Multifocal air emboli	EGD	Antibiotics, antithrombotics, fistula repair	Death
Rivera et al36	1	Female	50	Percutaneous: RFA	28	Minor haematemesis	CT of the chest	AEF and pleural effusions	EGD	Surgical	Survived
Tan and Coffey37	1	Female	67	Surgical: MVR and Maze procedure	20	Nausea, fever, numbness left foot; unresponsiveness	CT of the head	CT of the head: air embolism RSFA	CT of the chest	Non-surgical	Death
Shim et al38	1	Male	46	Percutaneous: RFA	2	Fever, chills, cough, headache; confusion, generalised tonic-clonic seizures	TTE/TEE	No thrombus	CT of the chest	Surgical	Survived
Neven et al39	1	Male	69	Percutaneous: HIFU	31	Fever, haematemesis, seizures, phrenic nerve palsy	CT of the head	Cerebral embolism	Autopsy	Non-surgical	Death
Dixit et al40	1	Female	NA	Percutaneous: PV isolation	14	Fever, haematemesis, nausea	EGD	Possible Mallory-Weiss tear	CT of the head	Non-surgical	Death

AEF, atrioesophageal fistula; CFAE, complex fractionated atrial electrograms; CPVA, circumferential pulmonary vein ablation; EGD, esophagogastroduodenoscopy; GEJ, gastroesophageal junction; HIFU, high-intensity focused ultrasound; IRAAF, intraoperative radiofrequency ablation of atrial fibrillation; LA, left atrium; LOC, loss of consciousness; LRFA, linear radiofrequency ablation; MVR, mitral valve replacement; NA, not available; PAD, postablation day; PV, pulmonary vein; PVI, pulmonary vein ablation; RFA, radiofrequency ablation; RSFA, right superior frontal area; TEE, transesophageal echocardiogram; TIA, transient ischaemic attack; TTE, transthoracic echocardiogram; UGI, upper gastrointestinal; VF, ventricular fibrillation.