Temporal trends of in-hospital complications associated with catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation in the United States: An update from Nationwide Inpatient Sample database (2011-2014)

BACKGROUND Catheter ablation is widely accepted intervention for atrial fibrillation (AF) refractory to antiarrhythmic drugs, but limited data are available regarding contemporary trends in major complications and in-hospital mortality due to the procedure. This study was aimed at exploring the temporal trends of in-hospital mortality, major complications, and impact of hospital volume on frequency of AF ablation-related outcomes. METHODS The Nationwide Inpatient Sample database was utilized to identify the AF patients treated with catheter ablation. In-hospital death and common complications including vascular access complications, cardiac perforation and/or tamponade, pneumothorax, stroke, and transient ischemic attack, were identified using International Classification of Disease (ICD-9-CM) codes. RESULT In-hospital mortality rate of 0.15% and overall complication rate of 5.46% were noted among AF ablation recipients (n = 50,969). Significant increase in complications during study period (relative increase 56.37%, P-trend