Complication rates following ventricular tachycardia ablation in ischaemic and non-ischaemic cardiomyopathies: a systematic review

BACKGROUND: Catheter ablation of ventricular tachycardia (VT) is associated with potential major complications, including mortality. The risk of acute complications in patients with ischaemic cardiomyopathy (ICM) and non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy (NICM) has not been systematically evaluated. METHODS: PubMed was searched for studies of catheter ablation of VT published between September 2009 and September 2019. Pre-specified primary outcomes were (1) rate of major acute complications, including death, and (2) mortality rate. RESULTS: A total of 7395 references were evaluated for relevance. From this, 50 studies with a total of 3833 patients undergoing 4319 VT ablation procedures fulfilled the inclusion criteria (mean age 59 years; male 82%; 2363 [62%] ICM; 1470 [38%] NICM). The overall major complication rate in ICM cohorts was 9.4% (95% CI, 8.1–10.7) and NICM cohorts was 7.1% (95% CI, 6.0–8.3). Reported complication rates were highly variable between studies (ICM I(2) = 90%; NICM I(2) = 89%). Vascular complications (ICM 2.5% [95% CI, 1.9–3.1]; NICM 1.2% [95% CI, 0.7–1.7]) and cerebrovascular events (ICM 0.5% [95% CI, 0.2–0.7]; NICM, 0.1% [95% CI, 0–0.2]) were significantly higher in ICM cohorts. Acute mortality rates in the ICM and NICM cohorts were low (ICM 0.9% [95% CI, 0.5–1.3]; NICM 0.6% [95% CI, 0.3–1.0]) with the majority of overall deaths (ICM 75%; NICM 80%) due to either recurrent VT or cardiogenic shock. CONCLUSION: Overall acute complication rates of VT ablation are comparable between ICM and NICM patients. However, the pattern and predictors of complications vary depending on the underlying cardiomyopathy. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10840-021-00948-6.