Ventricular tachycardia ablation in structural heart disease: Impact of ablation strategy and non-inducibility as an end-point on long term outcome

To investigate the long term outcomes after catheter ablation (CA) of ventricular tachycardia (VT) in the context of structural heart disease in a multicenter cohort. The impact of different ablation strategies (substrate ablation versus activation guided versus combined) and non-inducibility as an end-point was evaluated. Data was pooled from prospective registries at 5 centres over a 5 year period. Success was defined as survival free from recurrent ventricular arrhythmias (VA). Multivariate analysis of factors predicting survival free from VA was analysed by Cox regression. Five hundred sixty-six patients underwent CA for VT. Patients were 64 ± 15 years. Left ventricular ejection fraction was 35 ± 15% and 66% had ischaemic heart disease. At 2.3 (IQR 1.0–4.2) years, success was achieved in 44% after a single procedure, rising to 60% after repeat procedures. Mortality at final follow up was 22%. Multivariate analysis showed that higher left ventricular ejection fraction, younger age, ischaemic heart disease, and non-inducibility of VA predicted long term survival free from VA (all p