Ablation procedures in Sweden during 2007: results from the Swedish Catheter Ablation Registry

Catheter ablation research is reported extensively. Much less is known about the clinical practice in the field. Study databases and surveys target selected populations. A general registry is needed to evaluate the actual results of routine catheter ablation. We present statistics from the Swedish Catheter Ablation Registry.

The registry is a nation-wide database collecting data from all the eight centres serving the country's population of 9.18 million inhabitants. During each ablation procedure, the data are entered into a local database. On demand, the data are transferred to the central data management facility. The central SQL-database presently covers 7018 ablations performed in 5885 patients during 2004-07. In 2007, 2314 ablation procedures [521 for atrial fibrillation (AF)] were performed (252 ablations per million inhabitants and 57 AF procedures per million inhabitants). Mean procedure and fluoroscopy times ranked from 75 and 12 min, respectively, for atrioventricular junction ablation to 224 and 43 min, respectively, for AF ablation. The incidence of complications during 2007 was 1.8%. One death after a procedure for AF was reported, due to a cerebrovascular embolus.

The report presents prospective-gathered annual data from a nation-wide ablation register with voluntary participation. Several major complications have been reported, but the overall complication rate was low.