Catheter ablation for cardiac arrhythmias

Abstract

With the introduction of radiofrequency energy, catheter ablation has become an established technique for managing many cardiac rhythm disturbances. High efficacy and safety have been reported for accessory pathway ablation, selective fast and slow atrioventricular nodal pathway ablation to eliminate atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (while preserving atrioventricular conduction), atrioventricular junctional ablation to control the ventricular response to atrial tachyarrhythmias, ablation of the right bundle branch to eliminate bundle branch reentrant ventricular tachycardia, and ablation of the site of tachycardia origin in patients with ventricular tachycardia unassociated with structural heart disease. In addition, there has been active investigation into ablation techniques for more complex arrhythmias such as atrial tachycardia, atrial flutter, and ventricular tachycardia associated with structural heart disease.