Findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrate safety as well as efficiency of same-day discharge (SDD) after atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation.

• PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and the Cochrane library were explored and 12 observational studies including 18,065 catheter ablations [of which 7320 (40.52%) were discharged the same-day post-ablation] were analyzed.

• Pooled efficacy rate of SDD protocol (defined as the proportion of patients discharged the same day of ablation among the patients who were planned for SDD) was calculated.

• A pooled efficacy of 90.3% was reported, and major complication rates were estimated to be 1.1% and 0.7% in planned SDD and successful SDD groups, respectively.

• Readmission/emergency department visit rate were 3.0% and 3.1% in the same groups.

• In terms of major complication rate, no significant differences were found between planned SDD and overnight groups (risk ratio = 0.70).