Maurizio Gasparini, Massimo
Mantica, Maurizio Lunati*, Fabrizio Pizzetti°, Augusto Foresti, Alessandro Pellegrini*.
Operative Unit of Cardiology, Clinical Institute Humanitas, Rozzano (MI),
*Department of Cardiology and Cardiosurgery "A. De Gasperis", Niguarda Hospital,
Milan,
°Division of Cardiology, S. Spirito Hospital, Casale Monferrato (AL), Italy
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Orthotopic cardiac transplantation for treatment of
refractory end-stage heart disease is currently performed according to the primary
surgical aspects described by Stinson et al in 19691.
Postoperative disturbances in cardiac rhythm are considered to be minimized by appropriate
tailoring of the donor and recipient heart. However, several factors, such as the
disruption of the normal atrial blood supply of the recipient atrium, injury from the
surgical procedure, postoperative pericarditis, pre-existing heart disease and possible
transplant rejection can play an important role in the development of various cardiac
arrhythmias, observed even many years after heart transplantation2-4.
In some of these cases, catheter ablation techniques provide useful tools to eliminate the
arrhythmic substrate, often with complete and definitive success.
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