Impact of ventricular tachycardia ablation on health care utilization

Background Catheter ablation of ventricular tachycardia (VT) has been shown to reduce the number of recurrent shocks in patients with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). However, how VT ablation affects postprocedural medical and pharmaceutical usage remains unclear. Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in health care resource utilization (HCRU) after VT ablation. Methods This large-scale, real-world, retrospective study used the MarketScan databases to identify patients in the United States with an ICD or cardiac resynchronization therapy–defibrillator (CRT-D) undergoing VT ablation. We calculated cumulative medical and pharmaceutical expenditures, office visits, hospitalizations, and emergency room (ER) visits in the 1-year periods before and after ablation. Results A total of 523 patients met the study inclusion criteria. After VT ablation, median annual cardiac rhythm-related medical expenditures decreased by $5,408. Moreover, the percentage of patients with at least 1 cardiac rhythm-related hospitalization and ER visit decreased from 53% and 41% before ablation to 28% and 26% after ablation, respectively. Similar changes were observed in the number of all-cause hospitalizations and ER visits, but there were no significant changes in all-cause medical expenditures. During the year before VT ablation, there was an increasing rate of health care resource utilization, followed by drastic slowing after ablation. Conclusion This retrospective study demonstrated that catheter ablation seems to reduce hospitalization and overall health care utilization in VT patients with an ICD or CRT-D in place.