Radiofrequency catheter ablation for supraventricular tachycardia: a comparison study of children aged 0-4 and 5-9 years.

BACKGROUND: The safety and effectiveness of radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) for supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) in young children was investigated. METHODS: Ninety-five children who underwent RFCA procedures were stratified according to age (group 1, 0-4 years, n = 24; group 2, 5-9 years, n = 71) and were evaluated retrospectively. RESULTS: Among the 95 patients, atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia was 78.9%, atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia was 10.5%, and ectopic atrial tachycardia was 8.4%. The acute success rate of RFCA was 97.9% and the recurrence rate was 11.6%. RFCA was performed for different main reasons in each group, including drug-resistant tachycardia (37.5% in group 1 vs 7% in group 2; P = 0.001) and symptomatic tachycardia (4.2% in group 1 vs 57.7% in group 2; P < 0.001). There was no significant difference in success rate, recurrence rate, and procedure and fluoroscopy duration between the two groups. The acute success rates did not differ significantly between patients with a single accessory pathway (AP) and those with multiple APs; however, failure or recurrence was more common in the patients with multiple APs (38.5% vs 11.5%; P = 0.01). The multiple APs were found frequently on the right side (P = 0.005). Septal dyskinesia with left ventricular dysfunction in Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome and tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy improved after RFCA. CONCLUSIONS: RFCA was found to be effective and safe for SVT in young children.