Alcohol septal ablation: A useful tool in our arsenal against hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy

Affecting 1 in 500 individuals; hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is an autosomal dominant cardiovascular disorder which is prevalent throughout the world. Surgical myectomy (SM) and alcohol septal ablation (ASA) are two methods currently used for the management of drug refractory hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM). ASA may prove to be a useful, less invasive treatment in patients with HOCM METHODS: Electronic literature search was conducted to identify articles that discussed methods to treat drug refractory HOCM. No limits were placed on timing of the publication or the type of article. Keywords and MeSH terms were used and the results were summarized in the relevant section.

Current evidence suggests that alcohol septal ablation is a safe and effective procedure in treating patients with HOCM with similar short- and long-term outcomes when compared with SM.

ASA has been shown to be a safe and reliable procedure; imaging techniques and dedicated multi-disciplinary teams can be used to select patients with HOCM. Though SM is recommended as gold standard treatment for drug refractory HOCM, ASA may play an increasing role in the near future due an ageing population; both ASA and SM can have a beneficial role in treating those who are affected by HOCM when the appropriate group of patients are selected for each intervention.