Predictors of all-cause mortality for patients undergoing transvenous lead extraction

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background Risk assessment of TLE patients may be challenging due to incomplete knowledge about possible risk factors for post-TLE outcomes. The aim of this study was to identify predictors of 30-day and 1-year mortality in a large retrospective series of patients undergoing TLE at a high-volume centre. Methods Medical journals of 893 consecutive patients undergoing TLE between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2018 were analysed. Univariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify risk factors. Results A total of 893 patients were identified. Local infection was the dominant TLE indication (40.5%), and pacemaker was the most common CIED (49.4%). Mean age was 65 + 16 years and 73.0% were males. The median follow up was 3.9 years (IQR, 2.0-6.4 years). Staphylococcus aureus was the most common microorganism found in blood cultures of the systemic infection group (39.9%). A total of 179 (69.4%) systemic infection patients had vegetations on echocardiography, where majority engaged the lead(s). The 30-day and 1 year mortality rates were 2.5% (86.4% had systemic infection) and 9.7% (64.4% had systemic infection), respectively. Per-procedural mortality occurred in 1 patient with systemic infection. Significant predictors of 30-day mortality were low haemoglobin, systemic infection as TLE-indication, clinical frailty scales (CFS) 5-7 and stage 5 chronic kidney disease (CKD). In case of 1-year mortality, age, CRT-P/D (vs ICD), reduced ejection fraction, anaemia, BMI <25 kg/m2, CFS 4-7 and CKD stages 3-5 were identified as significant predictors. In the systemic infection subgroup, elevated white blood cell (WBC) count was associated with 30-day and 1 year mortality. Additionally CRP interval 200-300, low WBC count and WBC interval 8.8-15 correlated signigicantly with 1-year mortality within the systemic infection cohort. In the local infection subgroup, a significant correlation between CRP interval 100-150 and 1-year mortality was found. Conclusions Systemic infection as TLE-indication carries a high 30-days post-TLE all-cause mortality rate and is significantly correlated with short and long-term mortality, where elevated inflammatory parameters carried additional mortality risk in this subgroup. Anaemia, chronic kidney disease, CRT compared to ICD, reduced EF and patient-related features as high clinical frailty scale levels and BMI <25 kg/m2 predicted worse prognosis in the entire TLE-cohort.