Catheter ablation for cardiac arrhythmias

doi:10.1136/bmj.322.7286.613/a

BMJ 2001;322:613 ( 10 March )

Letters

Catheter ablation for cardiac arrhythmias

Ablation should not be denied to elderly patients on basis of age

Author's reply

Ablation should not be denied to elderly patients on basis of age

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

EDITOR $---$ Peters in his editorial fails to justify his conclusion that older patients with longstanding atrial fibrillation canbe managed by controlling their ventricular rate and by givingthem anticoagulation treatment without need for input from a specialist.¹Elderly people are underrepresented in clinical trials of cardiovasculardisease and are less likely to have appropriate cardiologicalinvestigations. ² ³

The reason for valuing the life of younger patients over that of older ones is not made explicit. Harris argues that whatis valued by each of us is the rest of our lives, the durationof which is unknown.⁴ An anti-ageist argument is of particularrelevance to catheter ablation, a procedure that is applicableto patients of all ages and considered by some to be first linetreatment in selected elderly patients.⁵ If catheter ablationis denied to elderly patients on the basis of age then they aresubject to the . . . [Full text of this article]