Alternative Approaches for Ablation of Resistant Ventricular Tachycardia

Ventricular tachycardia (VT) ablation is usually performed with an ablation catheter that delivers unipolar radiofrequency (RF) energy to eliminate the re-entry circuit responsible for VT. However, there are some instances when unipolar RF ablation fails, notably in VTs with a deep intramural origin, or cases in which epicardial access is not attainable due to prior cardiac surgery. To overcome these limitations, several alternative approaches have been used in clinical practice, including alcohol ablation or coil embolization, simultaneous unipolar or bipolar RF ablation, surgical ablation, or noninvasive ablation with stereotactic radiosurgery. This review article describes some of these alternative techniques.