Bryan G Maxwell1, Jochen Steppan2, Alan Cheng3. 1. Departments of *Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine. Electronic address: bmaxwell@jhu.edu. 2. Departments of *Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine. 3. Medicine, Section of Cardiac Electrophysiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To determine whether adult congenital heart disease patients (ACHD) undergoing catheter-based electrophysiology (EP) procedures have an increased risk for complications compared with adults without congenital heart disease. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study of a national administrative database. SETTING: Nationwide Inpatient Sample, 1998 through 2011. PARTICIPANTS: All admission records of patients who underwent a catheter-based electrophysiology procedure, categorized based on the presence or absence of ACHD. INTERVENTIONS: ACHD and non-ACHD cohorts were compared with respect to baseline, procedural, and outcome characteristics. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: ACHD patients accounted for n=15,133 (1.7%) of n=873,437 EP procedure admissions and comprised a significantly increasing proportion over the study period (from 0.8% in 1998 to 2.4% in 2011, p<0.0001). ACHD patients were younger than non-ACHD patients (52.5±0.3 years v 61.9±0.04 years; p<0.0001), had a longer length of stay (4.6±0.1 days v 4.4±0.01 days, p=0.013), higher total hospital charges ($89,485±$1,543 v $70,456±$175, p<0.0001), and a higher rate of procedure-related complications (odds ratio 1.66, 95% confidence interval 1.49-1.85, p<0.0001). On multivariate analysis, ACHD patients continued to demonstrate an increased risk of procedural complications (odds ratio 1.95, 95% confidence interval 1.75-2.19, p<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: ACHD patients experienced greater morbidity after catheter-based EP procedures. This finding will be of increasing significance as ACHD patients occupy a growing segment of the population undergoing these procedures. Further investigations are warranted to determine whether this increased risk is modifiable, with the aim of improving patient safety.
OBJECTIVE: To determine whether adult congenital heart diseasepatients (ACHD) undergoing catheter-based electrophysiology (EP) procedures have an increased risk for complications compared with adults without congenital heart disease. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study of a national administrative database. SETTING: Nationwide Inpatient Sample, 1998 through 2011. PARTICIPANTS: All admission records of patients who underwent a catheter-based electrophysiology procedure, categorized based on the presence or absence of ACHD. INTERVENTIONS: ACHD and non-ACHD cohorts were compared with respect to baseline, procedural, and outcome characteristics. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: ACHD patients accounted for n=15,133 (1.7%) of n=873,437 EP procedure admissions and comprised a significantly increasing proportion over the study period (from 0.8% in 1998 to 2.4% in 2011, p<0.0001). ACHD patients were younger than non-ACHD patients (52.5±0.3 years v 61.9±0.04 years; p<0.0001), had a longer length of stay (4.6±0.1 days v 4.4±0.01 days, p=0.013), higher total hospital charges ($89,485±$1,543 v $70,456±$175, p<0.0001), and a higher rate of procedure-related complications (odds ratio 1.66, 95% confidence interval 1.49-1.85, p<0.0001). On multivariate analysis, ACHD patients continued to demonstrate an increased risk of procedural complications (odds ratio 1.95, 95% confidence interval 1.75-2.19, p<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: ACHD patients experienced greater morbidity after catheter-based EP procedures. This finding will be of increasing significance as ACHD patients occupy a growing segment of the population undergoing these procedures. Further investigations are warranted to determine whether this increased risk is modifiable, with the aim of improving patient safety.