Health care utilization for premature ventricular complexes in acute settings

Premature ventricular complexes (PVCs) are common; however, their burden in acute health care settings is not well characterized. In parallel, therapies, particularly catheter ablation, have evolved, but contemporary trends in utilization remain unclear.

To evaluate the trends in health care utilization for PVCs.

We conducted an analysis of California statewide health care data from 2016 to 2022, including adults aged ≥18 years seen in an ambulatory surgery unit, emergency department, or inpatient hospital. PVCs and comorbidities were identified using International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) codes as primary or secondary diagnoses, and catheter ablation using ICD-10-Procedure Coding System and Current Procedural Terminology codes.

Among 87,819,413 health care encounters from 20,280,466 adults, 235,848 (0.27%) included a PVC diagnosis and 22,806 (0.03%) had PVCs as a primary diagnosis. Patients with PVCs were older, more often male, and white, and had more cardiovascular comorbidities. The proportion of encounters with PVCs increased from 0.19% in 2016 to 0.31% in 2022. Encounters with PVCs as the primary diagnosis rose from 0.023% to 0.029%. Between 2016 and 2022, 3394 catheter ablations for PVCs were performed, nearly doubling from 343 in 2016 to 619 in 2022. Of the 21,265 patients who had at least 1 principal diagnosis of PVCs, 3278 (15.4%) underwent catheter ablation for PVCs. Ablation recipients were older, predominantly male, and white, and had greater cardiovascular comorbidity.

PVCs, though infrequently coded as a primary diagnosis, are increasingly recognized in acute health care settings. The doubling of ablation procedures underscores growing clinical attention and the expanding role of interventional management, particularly among high-risk patients.