How are arrhythmias managed in the paediatric population in Europe? Results of the European Heart Rhythm survey

Abstract

The aim of this survey was to provide insight into current practice regarding the management of paediatric arrhythmias in Europe. The survey was based on a questionnaire sent via the Internet to the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) electrophysiology research network centres. The following topics were explored: patient and treatment selection, techniques and equipment, treatment outcomes and complications. The vast majority of paediatric arrhythmias concerns children older than 1 year and patients with grown-up congenital heart disease. In 65% of the hospitals there is a specialized paediatric centre, and the most commonly observed arrhythmias include Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome and atrioventricular nodal re-entry tachycardias (90.24%). The medical staff performing paediatric catheter ablations in Europe are mainly adult electrophysiology teams (82.05% of the centres). Radiofrequency is the preferred energy source used for paediatric arrhythmia ablation. Catheter ablation is only chosen if two or more antiarrhythmic drugs have failed (94.59% of the centres). The majority of the centres use flecainide (37.8%) or atenolol (32.4%) as their first choice drug for prevention of recurrent supraventricular arrhythmias. While none of the centres performed catheter ablation in asymptomatic infants with pre-excitation, 29.7% recommend ablation in asymptomatic children and adolescents. The preferred choice for pacemaker leads in infants less than 1 year old is implantation of epicardial leads in 97.3% of the centres, which continues to be the routine even in patients between 1 and 5 years of age as reported by 75.68% of the hospitals. Almost all centres (94.59%) report equally small number of complications of catheter ablation in children (aged 1-14 years) as observed in adults.