Abstract
Introduction
Ventricular tachycardia is a major complication associated with increased risk of sudden cardiac death in arrhythmogenic ventricular cardiomyopathy. Recurrence of VT status post catheter endocardial ablation with conventional mapping is a evolving discussion in management of VT prevention in ARVC. With the evolution of new mapping techniques to locate ectopic foci of VT, a combination of endo- and epicardial catheter ablation have proven to be efficacious in the prevention of frequency of VT recurrence and its duration.
Methods
Using PubMed, Ovid (MEDLINE) and Cochrane database we searched using the MeSH terms including: “arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy”, “arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia”, “monomorphic ventricular tachycardia”, “polymorphic ventricular Tachycardia”, “endocardial catheter ablation”, “epicardial catheter ablation”. The primary outcomes were to assess VT frequency and duration status post endocardial or epicardial or a combination of both types of ablation. The secondary outcome includes sudden cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac death after procedure. ANOVA with post HOC analysis was performed using SPSS v.26 (IBM Corp, NY, USA)
Results
A total of 33 studies included 1437 patients with a mean male=67%. The data analysis showed a mean VT prevention for endocardial ablation was 65%, epicardial 78%, and for combined epi-endocardial was 89% (figure-1). The mean procedural mortality rate was 2%. In order to test the hypothesis that combined epi-endocardial ablation was more successful in the prevention of VT recurrence, we performed a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The analysis was statistically significant F(2,14)=5.879, 95% CI, p=0.014. Post Hoc test (Tukey HSD test) with multiple comparisons indicated that patients who underwent combined epi-endocardial ablation experienced a statistically significant difference in VT prevention of 89% (95% CI p=0.01) compared to only endocardial ablation, mean VT prevention of 65% (95% CI, p=0.189) or only epicardial, mean VT prevention of 78% (95% CI, p=0.353).
Conclusion
With new mapping techniques, use of endocardial, and epicardial ablation is linked to decrease VT frequency, duration, ICD shocks, and sudden cardiac death in patients with ARVC in cohorts with prior failure of antiarrhythmics.
Total VT Prevention across target sites
Funding Acknowledgement
Type of funding source: None