Interventional electrophysiology in Bulgaria in 2021: data from the electronic registry BG-EMPHY

This study presents data from the national electronic registry BG-EPHY on electrophysiologic (EP) cardiac ablations in 2021. 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, electroanatomic mapping (EAM), irrigated and cryoablations, distribution of different types of arrhythmias, acute procedural success and complications are presented. Results: In 2021 fi ve EP centers performed 872 ablations in 546 men (62.6%) and 326 women (4.4% increase compared to previous year), incl. 6 ablations in pediatric patients (0.7%). EAM was used in 60.9% of the procedures, irrigation catheter was used in 55.2%, cryoballoon catheter - in 6%, and intracardiac echocardiography - in 4.2%. The most common ablation was pulmonary vein isolation, followed by ablation for AV nodal reentrant tachycardia and typical atrial fl utter. 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 2021, during a continuing COVID-19 pandemic the number of ablations increased slightly compared to the previous year. Distribution of EP procedure types was similar to previous years. Acute success was very high, while intraprocedural complications were rare.