Congenital heart diseaseCohort study
Long-term incidence of arrhythmias in extracardiac conduit Fontan and comparison between systemic left and right ventricle
- Retrospective cohort study
- single-centre
- consecutive patients
Authors' conclusion
Extracardiac conduit is related to a significant arrhythmic risk in the long-term FU, higher than previously reported. Bradyarrhythmias occur earlier but are less frequent than tachyarrhythmias. Interestingly, patients with systemic right ventricle have a significantly higher incidence of VT, especially in a very long FU.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with extracardiac conduit Fontan (ECC) at one centre, 1987–2017, minimum follow-up (FU) 5 yearsof 353 consecutive
- Participants
- 303 patients
- Exposure
- Systemic left vs right ventricle after extracardiac conduit Fontan
- Group 1n = 194reference
- Group 2n = 109
- Outcome
- Incidence of arrhythmias and relation to single ventricle morphology
- Follow-up
- Long-term FU
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Arrhythmic complications
≥1 arrhythmic complications
85 (28%)
Early arrhythmias
17 (5.6%)
Late arrhythmias
73 (24.1%)
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Late bradyarrhythmias · after 6 years
P = 0.48
Late tachyarrhythmias · after 12 years
P = 0.5
VT · after 12.5 years
P = 0.06
- Late tachyarrhythmias — Late tachyarrhythmias, all patients
- 55 (18.2%)
- Ventricular tachycardias (VT) — Higher VT incidence in Group 2 during FU
- P = 0.005
Original publication
Long-term incidence of arrhythmias in extracardiac conduit Fontan and comparison between systemic left and right ventricle. Europace. Published 23 April 2024. doi:10.1093/europace/euae097
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it