Feasibility and safety of reprocessing of intracardiac echocardiography catheters for electrophysiology procedures – a large single center experience

Cardiovascular Ultrasound

Research

Vedran Pasara¹  Ivan Prepolec¹  Anica Milinković¹  Davor Puljević¹  Giacomo Mugnai²  Gian-Battista Chierchia³  Carlo de Asmundis³  Jurica Putric Posavec⁴  Jakov Emanuel Bogdanic⁴  Andrija Nekić⁴  Vedran Velagic⁵  Davor Milicic⁵ 

[1] Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, University Hospital Center Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia;Electrophysiology and Cardiac Pacing, Division of Cardiology, University Hospital of Verona, Verona, Italy;Heart Rhythm Management Centre, UZ Brussel-VUB, Brussels, Belgium;University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia;University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia;Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, University Hospital Center Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia;

关键词: Catheter ablation;    Intra-cardiac echography;    Catheter reprocessing;    Environmental impact;    Sustainability;    Recycling;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12947-023-00318-4

 received in 2023-08-16, accepted in 2023-10-18,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

PurposeIntra-cardiac echocardiography (ICE) has become an important tool for catheter ablation. Adoption of ICE imaging is still limited because of its prohibitively high cost. Our aim was to study the safety and feasibility of ICE catheters reprocessing and its environmental and financial impact.MethodsThis was a single center retrospective analysis of all consecutive electrophysiology procedures in which ICE catheters were used from 2015 to 2022. In total, 1128 patients were studied (70.6% male, mean age was 57.9 ± 13.2 years). The majority of procedures were related to atrial fibrillation ablation (84.6%).ResultsFor the whole cohort, 57 new ICE catheters were used. Consequently one catheter could be used for 19.8 procedures. New catheters were only used when the image obtained by reused probes was not satisfactory. There were no cases of ICE probe steering mechanism malfunction, no procedure related infections and no allergic reactions that could be attributed to the resterilization process. In total, there was 8.6% of complications not related to ICE imaging. Financially, ICE probe reprocessing resulted with 90% cost reduction (> 2 millions of Euros savings for the studied period) and 95% waste reduction (639.5 kg less, mostly non degradable waste was produced).ConclusionOur data suggests that ICE catheter reprocessing is feasible and safe. It seems that risk of infection is not increased. Significant economic and environmental savings could be achieved by ICE catheters reprocessing. Furthermore, ICE reprocessing could allow more extensive ICE usage resulting in safer procedures with a potential reduction of serious complications.Graphical Abstract

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2023

【 图 表 】

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