[Surgical treatment of ventricular tachycardia]

Refractory ventricular tachycardia, resistant to antiarrhythmic drug therapy either because of inefficacy unwanted secondary effects or failure to comply with treatment, is not rare in the chronic phase of myocardial infarction. These considerations reinforce the value of curative therapeutic options, especially those related to antiarrhythmic surgery in these patients. Surgery is usually reserved for those with a ventricular aneurysm where the exclusion of arrhythmogenic zones may be performed with the scalpel, a cryoprobe, laser ... Procedures guided by peroperative endo end epicardial mapping, if possible simultaneous with computerised assistance, are more effective than procedures relying only on visual guiding. The clinical success rate is about 90% and the operative mortality tends to decrease (5 to 6%) with successive improvements to surgical technique. These satisfactory results show the reliability of this therapeutic approach applied to patients exposed to malignant arrhythmias.