Spanish Catheter Ablation Registry. 9th Report of the Spanish Society Of Cardiology Working Group on Electrophysiology and Arrhythmias (2009).

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES

This article reports the findings of the 2009 Spanish national Catheter Ablation Registry.

METHODS

Data were collected in two ways: retrospectively using a standard questionnaire and prospectively from a central database. Each center chose its own preferred method of data collection.

RESULTS

Data were collected from 59 centers. The total number of ablation procedures carried out was 8546, giving a mean of 145 ± 101 procedures per center. The three most frequently treated conditions were atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (n = 2341; 27%), typical atrial flutter (n = 1859; 21.7%) and accessory pathways (n = 1758; 20.5%). The fourth most common condition was atrial fibrillation (n = 1188; 14%), the number of which has grown by 44% since the 2008 registry. The overall success rate was 93%, major complications occurred in 1.9%, and the mortality rate was 0.046%.

CONCLUSIONS

Data from the 2009 registry show that the number of ablations carried out continued to increase and exceeded 8000 for the first time. In addition, they show, in general, a higher success rate and a lower number of complications. Cavotricuspid isthmus ablation, as treatment for typical atrial flutter, continued to be the second most common procedure. There was a substantial increase in the number of catheter ablations performed for atrial fibrillation compared with previous years.