Catheter ablation for cardiac arrhythmias

doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7263.716

BMJ 2000;321:716-717 ( 23 September )

Editorials

Catheter ablation for cardiac arrhythmias

Ablation is the safe and curative treatment of choice

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The first diagnostic electrocardiography on a person was carried out by Augustus Waller over a century ago at St Mary's Hospital,London. It was not until the 1980s that therapeutic cardiac electrophysiologyemerged; this procedure, carried out while patients are conscious,uses wires passed percutaneously to the heart to ablate the causeof arrhythmias. Cardiac electrophysiology is now an establishedspecialty within cardiology. ¹ ² Although the word "cure"is not widely applicable in medicine, it can now justifiably beused for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. Catheter ablationis a safe and curative option for most arrhythmias, with 85-98%cure rates among the arrhythmias treated most frequently. ³ ⁴ These results have been borne out by a recent large prospectivemulticentre study of 1050 patients which provides further evidenceof the benefit of catheter ablation; the study found an overallcure rate of 95% and that a second procedure was required in 4%of . . . [Full text of this article]