Abstract
Rationale Sarcoidosis with cardiac involvement can be associated with serious life-threatening arrhythmias and an increased risk of sudden cardiac death. Implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs) have been used for primary and secondary prevention of sudden death in patients with cardiac sarcoidosis (CS). Post-ICD placement complications have been shown to be higher in patients with CS. However, data comparing postoperative ICD complications among sarcoidosis patients with the general population is limited. Here, we evaluated the association of postoperative complications with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators in sarcoidosis. Methods Using the NIS database, we identified cases of adults aged ≥ 18 years undergoing surgical placement of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators between 2010 and 2019. Using ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes, we identified patients with sarcoidosis. In all statistical analyses, we applied weights provided by HCUP to produce results representative of national estimates. We compared categorical and continuous covariates in the baseline characteristics using the chi-square test and analysis of variance, respectively. We employed multivariable logistic and linear regression to compare binomial and continuous outcomes to assess differences in mortality rates. Results We analyzed 114073 patients during the study period. Of these, 1012 (0.9%) had sarcoidosis and were found to be significantly younger and female compared to patients without sarcoidosis (56.4 ±11.5 years vs. 65.6 ± 13.9 years, p <0.001) and (39.4% vs. 28.3%, p<0.001) respectively. Further, patients with sarcoidosis were more likely to be African American (45% vs. 16.3%), have private insurance (45.4% vs. 23.8%), and less likely to have Medicare (34.9% vs. 60.9%). Overall, post-ICD placement complications such as lead complications (4.2% vs. 6.9%, p = 0.03), post-procedure hemorrhage (4.1% vs. 5.5%, p=0.048), and requirement for transfusion (2.3% vs. 4.4%) were less likely in patients with sarcoidosis. Regarding post-ICD placement inpatient mortality, sarcoidosis was not associated with any difference (OR: 0.71, 95% CI 0.18-2.88 p=0.634). Conclusions Placement of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators in patients with sarcoidosis is a safe procedure and is associated with significantly lower rates of lead complications, post-procedure hemorrhage, and requirement for transfusion. This is of great importance as it is known that patients with underlying sarcoidosis are predisposed to developing more cardiac complications.