Spanish Catheter Ablation Registry. 18th Official Report of the Spanish Society of Cardiology Working Group on Electrophysiology and Arrhythmias (2018)

Introduction and objectives: This report presents the findings of the 2018 Spanish Catheter Ablation Registry. Methods: Data collection was retrospective. A standardized questionnaire was completed by each of the participating centers. Results: Data sent by 100 centers were analyzed, with a total number of 16,566 ablation procedures performed (the highest historically reported in this registry) for a mean of 165.5 ± 127.9 and a median of 119 procedures per center. The ablation targets most frequently treated were atrial fibrillation (n = 4234; 25.6%), atrioventricular nodal re-entrant tachycardia (n = 3525; 21.3%) and cavotricuspid isthmus (n = 3425; 20.7%). A new peak was observed in the ablation of atrial fibrillation, increasing the distance from the other substrates. The overall success rate was 91%. The rate of major complications was 2.2%, and the mortality rate was 0.04%. A total of 2.1% of the ablations were performed in pediatric patients. Conclusions: The Spanish Catheter Ablation Registry systematically and continuously enrolls the ablation procedures performed in Spain, showing a progressive increase in the number of ablations over the years, with a high success rate and low percentage of complications.