[Atrial tachycardia and nodal ventricular fibers]

The paper presents the results of direct operations for nodal tachycardias. Electrophysiological studies and open heart operations revealed that extranodal formations were implicated in the tachycardias. In particular it was found that some of them were located in front of the atrioventricular node closer to the fibrous angle (Type A) in some cases or closer to the base of the coronary sinus (Type B) in the others. From 1983 to 1989 the author performed 107 operations for nodal, the so-called borderline tachycardias (Type A) and 7 operations for Type B, as well as 4 for mixed tachycardia. No patient died, the negative results amounted to 8%. The incidence of complete transversal block was 3%. The long-term results indicated recurrent tachycardias in 13% of the cases, all the cases being noted in Type A.