[New ablation techniques in ventricular tachycardia]

Catheter ablation of ventricular tachycardia (VT) has proven to be effective in only a minority of VT patients. Therefore there is great interest in the development of new mapping and ablation techniques. New mapping procedures include multielectrode catheter mapping via the epicardial cardiac arteries and veins and the multielectrode basket catheter. Computerized non-contact mapping offers a three-dimensional approach in defining the activation sequence during VT. New ablative techniques are "cooled" radiofrequency energy application and microwave ablation which allow deeper and larger lesions. Already used in clinical practice are the application of laser energy and chemical ablation. New developments are ultrasound-, cryo- and thermal ablation. It can be suspected that some of these new achievements will lead to better results in VT ablation.