Abstract
BACKGROUND: Cardiac tamponade (CT) can be a complication following invasive cardiac procedures. We assessed CT following common cardiac electrophysiology (EP) procedures to facilitate risk prediction of associated morbidity and in-hospital mortality. METHODS: Patients who underwent various EP procedures in the cardiac catheterization lab (ablations and device implantations) were identified using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth and Tenth Edition, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM, respectively) from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) database. Patient demographics, presence of comorbidities, CT-related events, and in-hospital death were also abstracted from the NIS database. RESULTS: The frequency of CT-related events in patients with EP intervention from 2010 to 2017 ranged from 3.4% to 7.0%. In-hospital mortality related to CT-related events was found to be 2.2%. Increasing age was the only predictor of higher mortality in atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation and cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) groups (OR [95% CI]: AF ablation = 11.15 [1.70-73.34], p = .01; CRT = 1.41 [1.05-1.90], p = .02). CONCLUSIONS: In the real-world setting, CT-related events in EP procedures were found to be 3.4%-7.0% with in-hospital mortality of 2.2%. Older patients undergoing AF ablation were found to have higher mortality.