Multicenter Registry of Catheter Ablation in Argentina

Introduction: Electrophysiology is a branch of cardiology that has evolved remarkably in recent years. Currently, ablation of arrhythmogenic substrates is a common technique in many medical centers in the country. The objective of the registry is to provide real information on the participating Argentine electrophysiology medical centers, the available technology, and the procedures that were carried out during 2019 and 2020. Methods: A retrospective record of the procedures performed in 18 centers in the Argentine Republic was made, between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2020. For this purpose, an anonymous offline form was prepared to be completed in each center. Definitions and criteria for success and complications were standardized to facilitate uploading to the offline database. The information was sent by the centers via email. Results: Data from 18 participating centers were analyzed. A total of 1,664 ablations were performed, with atrial flutter being the most frequent substrate (26.2%), followed by ablation of intranodal tachycardia (22.2%) and atrial fibrillation (15.5%). The overall success was 94.71% and complications were observed in 1.68% of the procedures. Conclusion: The present registry provides important and useful information about these procedures and shows an adequate overall success rate (94.71%) on each substrate. The registry also evidenced the clear influence of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic and the measures taken in the number of procedures performed, with the exception of Atrial Tachycardia, which increased the number of cases by 30.3% in 2020 compared to the previous year, all the others decreased between 36.9% in Atrial Flutter and 57.5% in AV Reentrant Tachycardia. However, the difficulties that this new situation generated did not influence the success rates or their complications, so even in these circumstances this practice can be considered safe and effective.