Cardiac arrhythmia surgery.

Abstract

Cardiac arrhythmia surgery has changed dramatically in the past several years, as indicated by the articles published during the past year dealing with the surgical treatment of supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias. With the increasing use of radiofrequnecy ablation for the treatment of arrhythmias, the Maze procedure for the cure of atrial fibrillation will undoubtedly be the most commonly performed supraventricular arrhythmia procedure; the results thus far have been excellent. The use of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators as therapy for ventricular tachycardia and sudden cardiac death has allowed for more optimal selection of patients for direct ventricular tachycardia surgery, with the result that surgical mortality for curative procedures is 4%, with excellent long-term survival and freedom from arrhythmia recurrence. Finally, use of the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator as a bridge to cardiac transplantion has been examined as well, with promising intermediate-term results.