Patient related outcomes of mechanical lead extraction techniques (PROMET) study: A comparison of two professions

Background With an increasing number of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs), there has been a paralleled increase in demand for transvenous lead extraction (TLE). Cardiac surgeons (CS) and cardiologists perform TLE; however, data comparing the two groups of operators is scarce. Objective We compared the outcomes of TLE performed by cardiologists and CS from six European lead extraction units. Method Data was collected retrospectively of 2205 patients who had 3849 leads extracted (PROMET) between 2005 and 2018. Patient demographics and procedural outcomes were compared between the CS and cardiologist groups, using propensity score matching. A multivariate regression analysis was also performed for variables associated with 30‐day mortality. Results CS performed the majority of extractions (59.8%), of leads with longer dwell times (90 [57–129 interquartile range (IQR)] vs. 62 [31–102 IQR] months, CS vs. cardiologists, p