Sedation and blinding
hearing of communication
APPENDIX
During each procedure patients will be given over‐the‐ear headphones playing music to prevent hearing of communication between cath‐lab staff. Patients will then be sedated during the procedure using opiates and benzodiazepines and have eye coverings if necessary. After the procedure, all nursing staff, physicians and other health care professionals performing the procedure will have no further contact with the patient during follow‐up. Health care professionals or research staff involved in the patient care post‐procedure and during follow‐up will be blinded to the treatment strategy (Supporting Information: Appendix Participant blinding will be assessed at the time of discharge, 3 months and at 6 months follow‐up. Participants will be asked to guess one of the following: (1) ablation, (2) placebo, (3) Don't know. Participants will also be asked to state the certainty of their answers on a grade scale of 1−5 with 5 being most sure.Staff members will also be asked at discharge, 3 months and at 6 months follow‐up to guess the patient treatment allocation.