Catheter Ablation for Tachycardias

T ACHY ARRHYTHMIAS constitute a major cause of mortality and morbidity. The most serious manifestation of cardiac arrhythmia is sudden cardiac death where the underlying rhythm is ventricular tachycardia-ventricular fibrillation (VT VF) in the vast majority of patients. I Other symptoms produced by cardiac arrhythmias are syncope, near syncope, lightheadedness, and palpitations. Although supraventricular tachycardia seldom causes cardiac arrest it can, nonetheless, result in recurrent disabling symptoms.2 A variety of therapeutic modalities have emerged over the years to control tachycardias. These include antiarrhythmic drugs, implantable anti tachycardiacardioverter defibrillators, arrhythmia surgery, and catheter ablation. While implantable antitachycardia devices have evolved as the major nonpharmacologic treatment for VT VF, 3 the catheter ablation technique is now the choice therapy for many forms of supraventricular tachycardias.4-s