Utilization and in-hospital complications of catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation in patients with obesity and morbid obesity

Abstract

Background: Real-world data on atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation outcomes in obese populations have remained scarce, especially the relationship between obesity and in-hospital AF ablation outcome. Hypothesis: Obesity is associated with higher complication rates and higher admission trend for AF ablation. Methods: We drew data from the US National Inpatient Sample to identify patients who underwent AF ablation between 2005 and 2018. Sociodemographic and patients' characteristics data were collected, and the trend, incidence of catheter ablation complications and mortality were analyzed, and further stratified by obesity classification. Results: A total of 153 429 patients who were hospitalized for AF ablation were estimated. Among these, 11 876 obese patients (95% confidence interval [CI]: 11 422–12 330) and 10 635 morbid obese patients (95% CI: 10 200–11 069) were observed. There was a substantial uptrend admission, up to fivefold, for AF ablation in all obese patients from 2005 to 2018 (p