Perspective:

The present study is very concerning, as the NIS database is a robust survey of hospitals across the United States. In merely 4 years, the risk of tamponade increased by 35%. This is not explained by the aging of the population, although increasing comorbidities may have played a role. Some identified risks, such as female gender, have previously been shown to be associated with tamponade after implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) placement. Unfortunately, anticoagulation data were not available for query in the database. It was around the year span from 2008 to 2012 that many physicians embraced the practice of performing device implantations without warfarin interruption. While studies suggested that maintaining therapeutic international normalized ratio is associated with fewer complications than bridging with heparin, I just wonder if this may have affected how we approach the risks of anticoagulation and antiplatelet drugs in general. The authors indicate that the risk of tamponade was lower in patients with atrial fibrillation, but it remains unknown if this may have been due to single-chamber implantations. It would be very interesting to evaluate the impact that the lead type and size may have had, but unfortunately, this information was not available in the NIS. If we had a nationwide pacemaker database, like we do for ICDs, many of these questions might be answerable.