Short-term outcomes of atrial flutter ablation

Background Understanding the factors associated with early readmissions following atrial flutter (AFL) ablation is critical to reduce the cost and improving the quality of life in AFL patients. Method The study cohort was derived from the national readmission database 2013–2014. International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision (ICD-9-CM) diagnosis code 427.32 and procedure code 37.34 were used to identify AFL and catheter ablation, respectively. The primary and secondary outcomes were 90-day readmission and complications including in-hospital mortality. Cox proportional regression and hierarchical logistic regression were used to generate the predictors of primary and secondary outcomes respectively. Readmission causes were identified by ICD-9-CM code in primary diagnosis field of readmissions. Result Readmission rate of 18.19% (n = 1,010 with 1,396 readmissions) was noted among AFL patients (n = 5552). Common etiologies for readmission were heart failure (12.23%), atrial fibrillation (11.13%), atrial flutter (8.93%), respiratory complications (9.42%), infections (7.4%), bleeding (7.39%, including GI bleed–4.09% and intracranial bleed–0.79%) and stroke/TIA (1.89%). Multivariate predictors of 90-day readmission (hazard ratio, 95% confidence interval, P value) were preexisting heart failure (1.30, 1.13–1.49, P < 0.001), chronic pulmonary disease (1.37, 1.18–1.58, P < 0.001), anemia (1.23, 1.02–1.49, P = 0.035), malignancy (1.87, 1.40–2.49, P < 0.001), weekend admission compared to weekday admission (1.23, 1.02–1.47, P = 0.029), and length of stay (LOS) ≥5 days (1.39, 1.16–1.65, P < 0.001). Note that 50% of readmissions happened within 30 days of discharge. Conclusion Cardiac etiologies remain the most common reason for the readmission after AFL ablation. Identifying high risk patients, careful discharge planning, and close follow-up postdischarge can potentially reduce readmission rates in AFL ablation patients.