1363Incidence of major complications during electrophysiological studies and ablation procedures

Funding Acknowledgements: Bolyai Janos Research Scholarships of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA K 105555) Introduction: Although ablation therapy for cardiac arrhythmias has made a huge progress in terms of efficacy and safety in the past decade, major complications are still present. Purpose: Since limited data exist regarding the burden and trends in adverse outcomes of ablation therapy, our aim was to evaluate the incidence of major complications occurring during electrophysiological studies and ablation procedures. Methods: In our prospective study we involved all patients undergoing diagnostic and ablation procedure in our electrophysiology laboratory between January 2013 and December 2015. Occurrence of complications was evaluated within 3 months after each procedure. Only major complications – defined as an event requiring interventional treatment, causing long-term disability, death, or resulting a prolonged hospitalization – were included in our study. We evaluated data using descriptive statistics. Results: During the three-year period 4157 procedures were performed: 1573 (38%) ablation for atrial fibrillation, 1523 (36%) for supraventricular tachycardia, 493 (12%) for ventricular arrhythmia and 568 (14%) electrophysiological studies without ablation. Major complications occurred in 50 (1.18%) cases of all events: 20 (0.48%) pericardial tamponade, 4 (0.10%) pulmonary vein stenosis, 4 (0.10%) stroke and transient ischemic attack, 9 (0.22%) vascular complications, 11 (0.26%) atrioventricular block, 2 (0.02%) death. Conclusions: Our study provides an update on the incidence of major complications of electrophysiological studies and ablations performed at a high-volume center. Occurrence of major complications was within the previously reported range in our electrophysiology laboratory. We can assume that catheter ablation in general is associated with low risk and most complications can be treated properly by an experienced team with surgical backup.