Heart Care Info - Heart Disease Prevention & Treatment

... for catheter-based left atrial appendage closureHigh prevalence of early repolarization in patients with noncompaction cardiomyopathy presenting with malignant ...

WWB Chik, D Robinson, Z Malchano... - ..., 2011 - Eur Heart Rhythm Assoc Background: Gaps between radiofrequency (RF) ablation lesions are culprits for failed pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) leading to recurrent atrial fibrillation (AF). Recovery of electrical conduction across previously intact rings commonly warrants repeat isolation. We describe the first ...

Methods: We evaluated total 1057 procedures (393 for persistent AF; 235 robotically navigated ablations) in 857 patients (aged 58.0±9.4 yrs) referred for catheter ablation for AF between March, 2006 and August, 2010. All major complications during the procedure or within 3 months of follow-up were considered for analysis. Major complications were defined as those required intervention, resulted in long-term disability or prolonged hospitalization.

Results: Thirty-one major complications occurred in 1057 procedures (2.9%). Among patients with major complications, 2 pts had non-fatal stroke and 3 pts had transient ischemic attack, 3 pts had tamponade and 2 procedures were complicated by hemothorax during jugular vein puncture. The most frequent complication was the groin vascular injury (17 cases) requiring surgical repair and/or blood transfusion. There were also 2 cases of sepsis, 1 pericarditis and 1 case of advanced atrioventricular block due to extensive ablation in the right atrium requiring pacemaker implantation. No deaths occurred periprocedural or during the follow-up period. Among age, body weight, body height, body mass index (BMI), body surface area (BSA), AF type, and ablation technique, only body weight (83.8±13.6 vs. 90.8±15.8 kg; p=0.016), body height (172.7±9.0 vs. 176.8±9.6 cm; p=0.020), and BSA (1.97±0.18 vs. 2.07±0.21 m2; p=0.008) were significantly different between patients with and without major complications, respectively. In step-wise multivariate regression model with variables dichotomized at median value, the BSA was the only factor associated with major complications with incidence of 4.2% vs. 1.7% for BSA < 2.07 and >2.07m2 (P = 0.014), respectively.