LOS ANGELES, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Cryoablation, a new form of catheter-delivered therapy for cardiac arrhythmias, uses extreme cold to treat irregular heart beats, says a U.S. cardiologist.
This approach is especially suited for treating certain patients with high-risk arrhythmias, said Dr. Walter F. Kerwin, a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
The procedure involves a long thin tube that is inserted through a blood vessel in the groin, wrist or arm and threaded to the heart using intense cold to destroy very small, carefully selected areas of heart tissue that are causing the irregular rhythm.
The effects of cryoablation occur slowly, over minutes, in contrast to radiofrequency ablation, which heats the defective tissue to destroy it within seconds.
Patients with arrhythmias are commonly treated first with anti-arrhythmic medications such as digoxin, beta-blockers and other types of drugs to regulate their heartbeat, however, when medications fail or their side effects are not well tolerated, other surgical and non-surgical treatments are considered, Kerwin explained.
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