Background: Catheter ablation (CA) is considered the treatment of choice for patients with atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT). However, there is a tendency to avoid CA in the elderly because of a presumed increased risk of periprocedural atrioventricular (AV) nodal block.
Objective: The purpose of this prospective registry was to assess age-related differences in the efficacy and safety of CA within a large population with AVNRT.
Methods: A total of 3,234 consecutive patients from 48 German trial centers who underwent CA of AVNRT between March 2007 and May 2010 were enrolled in this study. The cohort was divided into three age groups: <50 years (group 1, n = 1,268 [39.2%]; median age = 40 [30.0-45.0] years, 74.1% women), 50-75 years old (group 2, n = 1,707 [52.8%]; 63.0 [58.0-69.0] years, 63.0% women), and > 75 years old (group 3, n = 259 [8.0%]; 79.0 [77.0-82.0] years, 50.6% women).
Results: CA was performed with radiofrequency current (RFC) in 97.7% and cryoablation technology in 2.3% of all cases. No differences were observed among the three groups with regard to primary CA success rate (98.7% vs. 98.8 % vs. 98.5%; P = .92) and overall procedure duration (75.0 minutes [50.0-105.0]; P = .93). Hemodynamically stable pericardial effusion occurred in five group 2 (0.3%) and two group 3 (0.8%) patients but in none of the group 1 (P <.05) patients. Complete AV block requiring permanent pacemaker implantation occurred in two patients in group 1 (0.2%) and six patients in group 2 (0.4%) but none in group 3 (P = 0.41). During a median follow-up period of 511.5 days (396.0-771.0), AVNRT recurrence occurred in 5.7% of all patients. Patients >75 years (group 3) had a significantly longer hospital stay (3.0 days [2.0-5.0]) compared with group 1 (2.0 days [1.0-2.0]) or group 2 (2.0 days [1.0-3.0]) patients (P <.0001).
Conclusion: CA of AVNRT is highly effective and safe and does not pose an increased risk for complete AV block in patients over 75 years of age, despite a higher prevalence of structural heart disease. Antiarrhythmic drug therapy is often ineffective in this age group; thus, CA for AVNRT should be considered the preferred treatment even in elderly patients.
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