Catheter ablation safe for patients

Jan 19 2005

A recent study published in Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology (PACE) determined that the use of catheter ablation to treat supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) is not detrimental to patients.

This data refutes previous evidence which suggested a high incidence of injury to a patient’s cardiac nerves, possibly resulting in accelerated heart rates following the procedure.

This research, supported in part by the National Institute of Health and led by Steven M. Markowitz at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center assessed the function of cardiac nerves in patients undergoing catheter ablation with radiofrequency energy. It was determined that no significant injury occurs to cardiac nerves as a result of ablation, and changes in heart rate during the procedure are transitory and are related primarily to medications and other procedural variables.

Catheter ablation has become a standard therapy for SVT which is an arrhythmia, or abnormal heart rhythm including such specific conditions as atrial fibrillation, AV nodal re-entrant tachycardia, and Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome.