BackgroundDespite the long experience of cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) implantation in Thailand, epidemiology of CIED infection in Thailand has never been studied.MethodsA retrospective cohort study was conducted at the cardiac referral center in Thailand to investigate incidence of CIED infection and causative organisms between October 2002 and December 2017. A matched case‐control study was performed to determine the factors associated with CIED infection.ResultsIncidence of CIED infection was 0.9% with a stable trend during the studied period. There were 54 episodes of CIED infection. The median (interquartile range) age of the patients was 67.5 (53.0‐75.0) years. A total of 29 (53.7%), 18 (33.3%), and 7 (13.0%) were permanent pacemaker, automatic implantable cardioverter‐defibrillator, and cardio‐resynchronization therapy‐related infection, respectively. Gram‐positive cocci were the most common organism (24 episodes, 44.4%). Gram‐negative bacilli were isolated in six episodes (11.1%). About 9.3% were polymicrobial and 35.2% were culture negative. Multivariate analysis showed that previous CIED infection and generator revision procedure were associated with CIED infection (odds ratio [OR] 48.56, 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.72‐633.62; P = 0.003 and OR 19.99, 95% CI 1.28‐333.24; P = 0.033 respectively). Forty (74.1%) cases were cured. Leaving device in situ was the only factor significantly associated with poor outcome (OR 11.40, 95% CI 1.52‐85.73; P = 0.018).ConclusionsIn Thailand, while CIED implantation is rising, incidence of CIED infection is stable. Microbiology of CIED infection in Thailand is similar to western countries, albeit a higher proportion of negative culture. Previous CIED infection and generator revision procedure are associated with CIED infection.

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