Prevalence of major complications and procedural mortality in 336 dogs undergoing interventional cardiology procedures in a single academic center

• Published in: Journal of veterinary cardiology Vol. 23; pp. 45 - 57
• Main Authors: LeBlanc, N.L., Agarwal, D., Menzen, E., Nomi, K., Sisson, D.D., Scollan, K.F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01-06-2019
• Subjects: Balloon valvuloplasty; Cardiac catheterization; Pacemaker implantation; Patent ductus arteriosus occlusion; Cardiac catheterization; OR; PS; CI; VSD; Pacemaker implantation; PDA; AVB; HW; Balloon valvuloplasty; Patent ductus arteriosus occlusion; ACDO; BVP; PM
• ISSN: 1760-2734; 1875-0834
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jvc.2019.01.003

Overall complication rates associated with a wide range of diagnostic and therapeutic interventional cardiac procedures in a contemporary academic setting have not been reported.
Consecutive interventional procedures performed for client-owned dogs were retrospectively analyzed to characterize procedural complications and mortality.
Three hundred sixty-four procedures were performed on 336 dogs. Interventions included attempted or completed transvenous pacemaker (PM) implantation (n = 134) with subsequent pacing system revision (n = 8), pulmonic balloon valvuloplasty (BVP) (n = 117) with a subset of patients undergoing an additional BVP (n = 14), transarterial closure of left-to-right shunting patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) (n = 66), diagnostic angiography and/or cardiovascular pressure measurement (n = 9), transvenous temporary pacing (n = 7), septal defect occlusion (n = 5), heartworm extraction (n = 3), and BVP catheter fragment retrieval (n = 1). The prevalence of major perioperative and postoperative complications for all procedures was 5% and 6%, respectively, and the procedural mortality rate was 2%. The overall rate of major complications was 12% for the PM group, 11% for the BVP group, and 2% for the PDA occlusion group. Both PM implantation and BVP have higher rates of major complications overall compared with PDA occlusion (p=0.0151).
The results of this study indicate that the prevalence of major complications and mortality associated with interventional cardiac procedures is low; however, significant differences exist in complication rates between procedures.