Fig. 1.

Procedure volume reduction in a hub EP center at the time of COVID-19 pandemia. Comparison between our EP unit activity during the last trimester of 2019 (green) and first trimester of 2020. The first trimester of 2020 was in turn subdivided into “moderate restriction” (from January to February, orange) and “massive restriction” of activity following the healthcare emergency outbreak at our institution (March 2020, red). For each procedure (1–12, as shown in both tables), bar height refers to absolute counts. Most important restrictions in last trimester regarded non-urgent procedures, like EPS (red box), while relative increase was observed in urgent device extractions for infective endocarditis (green box), as expected at a referral center.

*VT ablation and lead/device extraction are referral procedures at our EP unit as a hub center.

AF/AFlu/AT, atrial fibrillation, flutter or tachycardia ablation; CIED, cardiac implantable electronic devices, including pacemakers, ICDs, and CRT; ECV, electrical cardioversion; EMB, endomyocardial biopsy; EP, electrophysiology; EPS, electrophysiological study; ILR, implantable loop recorder; LAAC, left atrial appendage closure; PSVT, paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia ablation, including nodal and accessory pathway-related reentry tachycardias; PVC, premature ventricular complexes ablation; VT, ventricular tachycardia ablation