Results
A total of 68 ablation procedures were included in this study. Structural heart disease was present in 4 patients (6%). Among these, two had tetralogy of Fallot, one had atrial septal defect (ASD), and one had ASD and a ventricular septal defect (VSD), and one had a patent foramen ovale (PFO) and a VSD. Males accounted for the majority, comprising 60%. Various types of arrhythmias were diagnosed, with WPW being the most prevalent at 31%, followed by AVNRT at 24%, AVRT at 19%, VT at 10%, AF at 2%, and AT at 1%. The remaining 13% of patients presented with less common types of arrhythmias, including narrow complex tachycardia, retrograde dual atrioventricular nodal reentry, PVC, and orthodromic reciprocating tachycardia. Age at the time of ablation ranged from 4 to 23 years old with a mean age of 15 ± 3. Mean Weight at the time of ablation was 64± 15 kilograms (Table 1).
Radiofrequency ablation was completed in 87% of the patient population, the procedure was aborted in the remaining 13% for the following reasons: the failure to induce an SVT (67%), uncovering a new pathway (11%), negative electrophysiology (EP) study (11%), and the presence of a parahisian accessory pathway (11%) (Table 2).
Successful ablation was achieved in 93% of the completed ablation procedures, with 7% failures due to persistence of their arrythmias. Subsequently, of those with successful procedures, 26 patients (41%) were discharged on anti-arrhythmic medications, including beta blockers (68%), type 1c antiarrhythmics (25%), calcium channel blockers (3%), ivabradine (2%), and amiodarone (2%). Those medications were eventually stopped in 86% of patients at varying times: after two weeks (56%), after one month (39%), and after three months (6%).