Complications of endomyocardial biopsy in heart transplant patients: a retrospective study of 2117 consecutive procedures

BACKGROUND: Endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) remains the gold standard for the diagnosis of graft rejection after heart transplantation (HT). Our purpose was to evaluate the rate of complications of this invasive procedure. METHODS: This was a retrospective study of 175 patients, who were transplanted between November 2003 and October 2010 and survived more than 1 month after surgery. We evaluated the number of inconclusive EMB and described the incidence, nature, and subsequent management of several complications associated with this procedure. RESULTS: Over a period of approximately 7 years, we performed 2217 EMB yielding 4972 specimens, namely, an average of 2.3 fragments per procedure. The majority of EMBs (95.3%) were performed by the femoral approach. Only 12 EMB (0.57%) were inconclusive. The overall complication rate was 0.71%. During puncture, one patient experienced a vasovagal reaction and another one, a femoral artery false aneurysm. During the biopsy, there was one case of cardiac perforation with tamponade, two cases of supraventricular tachycardia, and three atrioventricular conduction abnormalities. In 19 patients, histological analysis revealed chordal tissue, but only two patients developed mild tricuspid regurgitation. We observed five cases of coronary artery fistulae. The clinical outcomes were favorable in all cases. CONCLUSION: EMB proved to be a suitable, safe method to monitor rejection after HT