Does Volume of Cardiac Catheterizations Correlate With Better Outcomes?

In many types of cardiology procedures, there is an association between higher institutional volume and improved outcomes. Andrew C. Glatz, MD, and colleagues investigated whether such a relationship occurs in congenital cardiac catheterization.

The study team identified all congenital cardiac catheterizations from 2011 to 2013 at 64 institutions in the IMPACT (Improving Pediatric and Adult Congenital Treatment) Registry. Of the 33,825 catheterizations, a major adverse event occurred in 711 cases (2.1 percent). In unadjusted analysis, the risk of adverse events was lower in centers that perform more catheterizations for congenital heart disease. However, after adjusting for patient- and procedure-level factors, there was no significant association between center volume and outcome. The researchers added that the hospital sample size and low event rate may have limited their ability to detect significant differences.

Andrew Glatz et al. "Relationship between hospital procedure volume and complications following cardiac catheterization: a report from the IMPACT Registry."