The Efficacy and Safety of Catheter Ablation for Supraventricular Tachycardia in Geriatric Patients

Abstract

Background: The number of geriatric patients is increasing in Japan. Catheter Ablation (CA) is considered the useful treatment of choice for patient with supraventricular tachycardia (SVT). Therefore, it is tend to increase Catheter Ablation (CA) for geriatric patients of SVT. Objective: The aim of this study is to asses the efficacy and safety of CA for SVT except for Atrial Fibrillation (AF) in geriatric patients. Methods and Results: We studied thirty-one consecutive patients aged 75 and older (men 21 cases, median age 78±3, oldest age 88 years old) who underwent CA for SVT between January 2006 and March 2011 in our institution. 31 cases include 15 cases of typical atrial flutter (AFL), 1 case of atypical AFL, 9 cases of atrioventricular nodal re-entrant tachycardia, 5 cases of atrioventricular re-entrant tachycardia, and 1 case of ectopic atrial tachycardia. Initial CA success rate was 100% for all ablation types. And there were no major complications under the operation and after the operation. During observation periods (2.1±1.2 years), there were no recurrence cases except for the atypical AFL (recurrence rate 3.2%). Conclusion: CA of SVT has efficacy and safty and low rates of recurrence. CA is an excellent choice therapy option for geriatric patients with SVT except for atrial fibrillation.