Short Communication - Archives of General Internal Medicine (2020) Volume 4, Issue 4

Cardiac Ablation: The Importance, Advantages and Disadvantages

Cardiac ablation may be a procedure to scar or destroy tissue in your heart that's allowing incorrect electrical signals to cause an abnormal cardiac rhythm. Diagnostic catheters are threaded through blood vessels to your heart where they're wont to map your heart's electrical signals. Catheter ablation involves advancing several flexible catheters into the patient's blood vessels, usually either in the femoral vein, internal jugular vein, or subclavian vein. The catheters are then advanced towards the heart. Electrical impulses are then used to induce the arrhythmia and local heating or freezing is used to ablate (destroy) the abnormal tissue that is causing it. Originally, a DC impulse was used to create lesions in the intra-cardiac conduction system. However, due to a high incidence of complications, widespread use was never achieved. Newer procedures allow for the terminating of diseased or dying tissue to reduce the chance of arrhythmia. Catheter ablation is usually performed by an electrophysiologist (a specially trained cardiologist) in a cath lab or a specialized EP lab.

Author(s): Ruchi Baghel

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