"Through the looking glass: 10-year-single centre experience in cardiac electrophysiology and radiofrequency ablation".

Background: Radiofrequency catheter ablation is an emerging curative modality of treatment for several types of cardiac arrhythmias. The aim of our study was to evaluate our experience of electrophysiology procedures over a 10-year-period and compare it with the published literature.

Methods And Result: All patients undergoing cardiac electrophysiology and radiofrequency ablation procedures during the period from 01 January 2003 to 30 April 2012 were included in this study. The study analyzed 892 patients of which atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT) was n = 513 (57.5%), accessory pathways n = 230 (25.8%), atrial tachycardia n = 26 (2.9%), atrial flutter n = 15 (1.7%), atrial fibrillation = 9 (1.0%), ventricular tachycardia n = 37 (4.2%) and diagnostic studies n = 62 (6.9%). Three-dimensional electro-anatomic mapping was performed in n = 17 (1.9%). The success rate was 99% with AVNRT, 94% with accessory pathway, 81% with atrial tachycardia, 64% with ventricular tachycardia and 34% with atrial fibrillation. The major and serious complications rate was 0.45%.

Conclusions: The procedural success rate and the complication rate in this real-world study of the Armed Forces were comparable/superior to the reported literature.