To Örebro University

Background: Catheter ablation has become the treatment of choice for many tachyarrhythmias. The ablation techniques are continuously refined and the indications expanded, enabling treatment of more complex substrates. Hence, the spectrum of treated arrhythmias is likely to have changed over time, but compelling data on this are lacking.

Objective: The present study set out to explore the changing pattern of ablations performed in the setting of a universal, single-payer healthcare system, using data from the Swedish national catheter ablation registry.

Methods: The Swedish National Catheter Ablation Registry covers virtually all (>97%) catheter ablations performed in Sweden since 2005 and comprises 42,192 ablations on 32,237 individual patients. In the present analysis, all ablations performed between 2005 and 2016 were included.

Results: In 2005, there were 7 ablation centers in Sweden performing a total of 1,584 ablations (226/center; 175/million). In 2016, 11 ablation centers performed 5,022 ablations (457/center; 502/million). Ablation of atrial fibrillation increased from 326 ablations (21% of all) in 2005 to 2,063 (41%) in 2016. Although, the number of ablation procedures for ventricular tachycardia and premature ventricular contractions is increasing, it is still on a relatively modest level (Figure). In contrast to other reports, there is no apparent decline in the number of accessory pathway ablations.

Conclusion: In the setting of a universal, single-payer healthcare system, the number of ablations more than tripled over a 10-year period. Ablation of atrial fibrillation is the main driver behind this increase and accounted for 41% of all ablations in Sweden in 2016.