Access at: www.AERjournal.comWith the advent of successful surgical repairs and modern diagnostic techniques, an increasing number of patients with congenital heart disease survive to adulthood. Despite these improvements, the surgical corrective atrial incisions performed during childhood lead to subsequent myocardial scarring that have the inherent risk of harbouring substrates for macro-reentrant atrial tachycardias (MRATs). Apart from surgical conduction barriers such as patches, conduits and surgical scars, there are also natural barriers including valve annuli and venous orifices that potentially may become critical substrates for tachyarrhythmias.
1The 20-year risk of developing atrial arrhythmias among patients with adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) was 7 % in a patient aged 20 years and 38 % in a patient aged 50 years in a population-based study. Apart from these tachyarrhythmias, patients with ACHD also have an increased risk of pump failure, stroke and sudden cardiac death (SCD). 6 Although the incidence of SCD is low (0.09 % per year) in the CHD population, it is higher compared with age-matched controls 7 and related to arrhythmias in 14 % of all deaths after initial repair. hearts have the highest risk of SCD (2-9 % per decade). [8][9][10] In the German National Register for Congenital Heart Defects for adult patients, the mortality rate during a median follow-up of 3.7 years was 9.2 % among 2596 patients, with heart failure (27.6 %) and SCD (23.0 %) as the leading causes of death. 11 Deceased patients had a more complex CHD and extracardiac comorbidities.The treatment of CHD imposes certain safety considerations when choosing antiarrhythmic drugs while various cardiac anatomical barriers and required operator expertise should be taken into account when referring patients for catheter ablation. The complex cardiac anatomy and haemodynamic changes require special precautions related to the increased risk of pro-arrhythmia when using antiarrhythmic drugs and the need for specialised expertise and sophisticated mapping systems when complex catheter ablation procedures are performed.Pre-procedural cardiac imaging with a variety of methodologies can assist with venous access to the heart, determining details of native cardiovascular anatomy and the nature of corrective surgery and evaluation of ventricular function. Reviewing all tachycardias from prior ECGs is also important before the procedure. The success rates after catheter ablation in patients with ACHD is somewhat lower compared with the general population, with acute and long-term success rates
AbstractAn increasing number of patients with congenital heart disease survive to adulthood; such prolonged survival is related to a rapid evolution of successful surgical repairs and modern diagnostic techniques. Despite these improvements, corrective atrial incisions performed at surgery still lead to subsequent myocardial scarring harbouring a potential substrate for macro-reentrant atrial tachycardia. Macroreentrant atrial tachycardias are the mo...