Interventional electrophysiology in Bulgaria in 2022: data from the electronic registry BG-EPHY

This study presents data from the national electronic registry BG-EPHY on electrophysiologic (EP) cardiac ablations in 2022. Material and methods: This is a retrospective study of a full one-year sample of the BG-EPHY registry. Sex and age distribution of the patients, number of ablations, use of electroanatomic mapping (EAM), irrigated and cryoablations, distribution of different types of arrhythmias, acute procedural success and complications are presented. Results: In 2022 seven EP centers performed 1369 ablations in 872 men (63.7%) and 497 women (57% increase compared to previous year), incl. 15 ablations in pediatric patients (1.1%). EAM was used in 746 procedures (54.5%), irrigated-tip catheter – in 814 (59.5%), cryoballoon catheter – in 130 (9.5%), and intracardiac echocardiography – in 33 (2.4%). The most frequently performed ablation was pulmonary vein isolation (40.2%), followed by ablation for AV nodal reentrant tachycardia (18.6%) and typical atrial fl utter (16.6%). The acute success was over 98%, while intraprocedural complications were less than 2%. Conclusion: The national registry of electrophysiology collects systematically and continuously basic data on all ablations of cardiac arrhythmias performed in the country. In 2022, during a subsiding COVID-19 pandemic and with the inclusion of new centers the number of ablations increased compared to 2021. Distribution of EP procedure types was similar to previous years. Acute success was very high, while intraprocedural complications were rare.