Related Experiment Videos
[Catheter ablation in patients with refractory cardiac arrhythmias with radiofrequency techniques]
A A de Paola1, C E Balbão, O Silva Netto
1Setor de Eletrofisiologia Clínica da Escola Paulista de Medicina, S. Paulo.
Purpose:
evaluate the efficacy of radiofrequency catheter ablation in patients with refractory cardiac arrhythmias.
Methods:
twenty patients with refractory cardiac arrhythmias were undertaken to electrophysiologic studies for diagnosis and radiofrequency catheter ablation of their reentrant arrhythmias. Ten patients were men and 10 women with ages varying from 13 to 76 years (mean = 42.4 years). Nineteen patients had supraventricular tachyarrhythmias: One patient had atrial tachycardia and 1 atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular rate, 5 patients had reentrant nodal tachycardia, 12 patients had reentrant atrioventricular tachycardia and 1 patient had right ventricular outflow tract tachycardia.
Results:
the mean time of the procedure was 4.1 hours. The radiofrequency current energy applied was 40-50 V for 30-40 seconds. Ablation was successful in 18/20 (90%) patients; in 15/18 (83%) of successfully treated patients the same study was done for diagnosis and radiofrequency ablation. One patient had femoral arterial occlusion and was treated with no significant sequelae. During a mean follow-up of 4 months no preexcitation or reentrant tachycardia occurred.
Conclusions:
the results of our experience with radiofrequency catheter ablation of cardiac arrhythmias suggest that this technique can benefit an important number of patients with cardiac arrhythmias.