13th International Congress
THE "NEW FRONTIERS"
OF ARRHYTHMIAS 1998

January 24-31, 1998
Marilleva, Trento, Italy

RT-148

Long-term clinical effects of A-V junctional ablation in patients with supraventricular arrhythmias

Gaetano Barbato, Rocco Fernando Guaragna, Elena Negrini, Giampiero Nobile, Maria Gabriella Camplese, Daniele Bracchetti.
Sezione di Cardiologia, Ospedale Maggiore, Bologna, Italy

Introduction

AV junctional ablation (AVJ) and pacemaker implantation are a well established approach to patients with supraventricular tachycardia^1-5. Usually the patients show a dramatic improvement of their quality of life after the treatment due regularization of heart rate and increasing cardiac output.

There is some concern regarding the long-term follow-up of this procedure considering the potential negative effects of the artificial AV block and subsequent pacemaker implantation.

In this report we evaluated data of a long-term follow of 72 patients who underwent AVJ because of severe drug refractory supraventricular tachycardia.