Results:

The study included 131 patients from 19 centers in Italy, and 184 PSGB procedures were performed. Mean patient age was 68 years, with 83.2% males. Of all patients, most had structural heart disease, 29% had acute myocardial infarction, 21% were in cardiogenic shock, 5% were in septic shock, and 8% were in cardiac arrest. Mean left ventricular ejection fraction was 25%. Most procedures (88%) were performed on patients receiving intravenous amiodarone or lidocaine, and 3% were performed on patients receiving procainamide. Of 115 patients who suffered arrhythmic episodes requiring treatment in the 12 hours prior to PSGB, 106 (92.2%) had a reduction in the number of treated episodes of ≥50% in the 12 hours after the procedure. Thus, the primary study outcome of effectiveness of PSGB was 92.2%.

The per-patient secondary outcome of median number of treated episodes decreased from 6 per person in the 12 hours prior to PSGB to 0 per person in the 12 hours following PSGB (p < 0.001). The per-procedure secondary outcome of number of treated arrhythmic episodes in the 1 hour before versus 1 hour after each procedure decreased from 2 to 0 (p < 0.001). Only one major complication and two minor complications were observed. Time to first treated arrhythmia recurrence was longer following PSGB procedures performed with anesthetic bolus and infusion versus a single anesthetic bolus (360 minutes vs. 105 minutes, p = 0.019).