Direct surgical treatment of atrioventricular node reentrant tachycardia

Atrioventricular node reentry tachycardia is a common type of supraventricular tachycardia. Rarely is it incapacitating and refractory to drug therapy, but when it is, the only option in therapy until recently has been atrioventricular node ablation or antitachycardia pacemaker insertion. The purpose of this paper is to review the case histories of four patients in whom we have surgically abolished atrioventricular node reentrant tachycardia while intentionally preserving atrioventricular node conduction. All four patients had atrioventricular node reentrant tachycardia confirmed by electrophysiologic study as diagnosed by established criteria. One patient had a left posterior atrioventricular accessory pathway, in addition to atrioventricular node reentrant tachycardia. All patients underwent intraoperative epicardial and endocardial mapping. Direct surgical dissection of the atrioventricular node node was performed in all four patients during normothermic cardiopulmonary bypass. Early and late postoperative electrophysiologic studies were used to evaluate the success of the surgical dissection. None of the patients had any evidence of dual atrioventricular node pathways or spontaneous or inducible atrioventricular node reentrant tachycardia postoperatively. At last follow-up (15 weeks to 21 months postoperatively), all patients were free from arrhythmias and cardiac medications, all were in normal sinus rhythm, and all had a subjectively improved life-style. This technique of direct surgical dissection of the atrioventricular node during normothermic cardiopulmonary bypass has allowed for complete cure of atrioventricular node reentrant tachycardia, while maintaining normal atrioventricular node function in these four patients.