Safety steps for a non-fluoroscopic approach in right-sided electrophysiology procedures: A point of view

Electro-anatomic 3D mapping systems enable the fluoroscopy (FL) exposure to be reduced. In right-heart supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) procedures, FL could potentially be avoided. Our aim was to discuss some steps focusing on safety.

The patient cohort comprised 70 consecutive SVT patients who underwent electrophysiologic (EP) catheterization. FL was routinely avoided in all cases (54.2% males, age 57.2 ± 13.3 years): 51 ablations and 19 EP study procedures. The Carto^®3 (Biosense Webster) mapping system was used in 17/70 cases (24.3%), and the EnSite Precision™ (Abbott) system in the remaining 53/70 (75.7%). The mean procedure time was 94.1 ± 33.2 min; no FL was used. No major complications occurred. Acute procedural success was achieved in all 51 patients who underwent ablation. Over 3-month follow-up, arrhythmia recurred in 1 patient. There were no significant differences in procedural times between the two mapping systems, except for the time dedicated to the full geometry creation, which was longer for the EnSite Precision™ system: 10 min (8.5-15 IQR) vs 8 min (5-10 IQR) for the Carto^® system (p < 0.001) mainly due to the sub-diaphragmatic navigation. The following procedural steps were considered critical in order to safely avoid FL use: "loop" advancing of catheters, the use of a fixed intracardiac reference, His signal landmark centered maps and the careful acquisition of sub-diaphragmatic extracardiac geometry.

A routine zero X-ray approach by means of electro-anatomic 3D mapping systems is safe and effective in right-atrium procedures. Some ad-hoc discussed procedural steps may enhance safety.