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The Ongoing Influence of Staff Training on the Performance of Radiofrequency Catheter Ablation
Author(s) -
ROSENHECK SHIMON,
ROSE MICHAL,
SHARON ZEHAVA,
WEISS TEDDY A.,
GOTSMAN MERVYN S.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
pacing and clinical electrophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.686
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1540-8159
pISSN - 0147-8389
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-8159.1997.tb06785.x
Subject(s) - medicine , ablation , atrial flutter , catheter ablation , catheter , radiofrequency ablation , tachycardia , surgery , anesthesia , cardiology
The aim of this study was to assess whether the performance of RF catheter ablations continues to improve by further staff training once an initial success rate of > 90% has been achieved. Two hundred and ninety‐five procedures of SVT catheter ablation using RF energy were studied. Atrial tachycardia and atrial flutter substrate ablations were not included. The procedures were performed during a 4‐year period by the same physician and nurse, who had previous training in these procedures. The 4‐year period was subdivided into four consecutive 1‐year periods in which 69, 72, 68, and 86 procedures were performed. The outcome, recurrence rate, and duration of the curative procedure were compared among the four periods. There was no significant difference in the initial success rate among the four periods. The recurrence rate decreased from 21.74% to 13.95% (P < 0.05). The duration of the curative procedure decreased from 93.7 ± 78.4 minutes to 39.1 ± 32.2 minutes (P < 0.001), and the fluoroscopic time decreased from 25.5 ± 22.3 minutes to 11.3 ± 8.2 minutes (P < 0.001). These results were similar when accessory pathway and selective AV nodal pathways ablations were separately evaluated. Following the initial staff training, during which the expected 80%‐90% success rate is achieved, additional training will reduce the recurrence rate and the duration of the procedures at a similar level of success. (PACF 1997; 20[Pt. I]:1312‐1317)