In-hospital mortality following catheter ablation procedures in Germany: insights from the VARY project
Authors: Tilz R R , Vogler J , Sommer P , Steven D , Meyer C , Pauschinger M , Kuniss M , Doll N , Zahn R , Voigtlaender T , Kuck K H , Schneider S , Senges J , Brachmann J , Lewalter T 
Published: May 2024

Background

The number of catheter ablation (CA) procedures has increased significantly over the last decade. 102,737 CA have been performed in Germany in 2021. Although CA of different types of arrhythmias is generally considered to be safe, serious complications, including in-hospital death, may occur. There is a paucity of real-world national healthcare data in Germany.

Aim

To investigate the overall in-hospital mortality in patients undergoing any type of CA procedure in Germany and to identify variables associated with in-hospital mortality.

Methods

According to the German law German hospitals are obliged to provide a dataset including case data, diagnosis based on the ICD-10-GM, operational and procedural codes to the Institute for hospital remuneration system (InEK) every year. The VARY project aims at analyzing and monitoring these data to report the real world scenario on patients undergoing CA in Germany. As of now, 22 German centers were contacted by the Institute for Myocardial Infarction Research (IHF). Their Data between 2019 and 2023 provided from seven of those centers were used for this analysis. Datasets from ten centers are pending. Five centers were not able to provide their data. The project is supported by the German Heart Foundation.

Results

A total 21,028 patients underwent inpatient CA. 49 patients (69.4% males) died in-hospital following a CA procedure resulting in an overall in-hospital mortality rate of 0.23%. A percutaneous epicardial ablation approach was used in 6.1% of the patients who died (Group A) compared to 0.3% in the surviving patients (Group B). Radiofrequency ablation was used in 83.7% vs. 72.6%, cryoablation in 10.2% vs 27.1%. Patients who died were older compared to those who survived (mean age: 66.7 ± 14.6 vs. 62.0 ± 14.4 years, p &lt;0.01) and had more comorbidities such as diabetes (19/49 (38.8.%) vs. 2274/20,979 (10.8%), p &lt;0,01), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (5/49 (10.2%) vs. 555/20,979 (2.6%), p &lt; 0,01) and heart failure (39/49 (79.6%) vs. 5116/20,979 (24.4%), p &lt;0.01). There was no difference with regards to gender between the two groups. The most common arrhythmia in both groups was atrial fibrillation with 67.3% and 75.3% (p &lt; 0.01). Cardiac arrest was observed in 44.9% of patients in group A compared to only 0.3% in group B. The median hospital stay was longer in group A (19.0 (IQR 8.0; 42.0) vs. 2.0 (IQR 1.0; 3.0), p &lt; 0.01). 46/49 (93.9%) patients who died were treated on an intensive care unit for a median time of 13.5 days (IQR 3.8; 33.8) compared to 1272/20,979 (6.1%) (p &lt; 0.01) in group B. A cardiac implantable electronic device implantation or revision was performed in 18.4% patients in group A (4 defibrillator implantations, 2 pacemaker implantations, 5 revisions) compared to 2.9% in group B (survivors).

Conclusion

Inpatient catheter ablation procedures in Germany are associated with a very low in-hospital mortality comparable to data reported from the US.