Surgical treatment of tachyarrhythmias in patients with both an Ebstein anomaly and a Kent bundle

The report relates experience with six patients with Kent bundles, five of whom had the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, operated upon for tachyarrhythmias caused by the presence of the pathway. It was successfully divided in four patients, its antegrade conduction capacity interrupted in one, and a failure occurred in the sixth patient. In the three patients who had a Kent bundle with a short effective refractory period for antegrade conduction, the life-endangering potential of the Kent pathway was corrected. To emphasize the complexities of the tachyarrhythmias in Ebstein's anomaly, two patients have mild but controllable postoperative supraventricular tachyarrhythmias (SVT) due to a Mahaim pathway. The surgical problems encountered in these patients are reviewed.