Myongji Hospital in Goyang has become the first medical institution in the northwest Gyeonggi Province to introduce a cooling balloon catheter ablation procedure to treat atrial fibrillation, a type of arrhythmia, the hospital said Thursday.
A team led by Professors Hwang Ui-seok and Lee Jae-hyuk at the hospital’s Cardiovascular Center recently performed the cooling balloon catheter ablation procedure instead of high-frequency electrode resection, mainly performed on male patients in their 60s diagnosed with atrial fibrillation.
Unlike the traditional high-frequency electrode resection, which electrically blocks the pulmonary vein that causes tachycardia by using high-frequency energy, cooling balloon catheter ablation is a treatment that blocks the pulmonary vein by rapidly cooling the pulmonary vein to 40-50 degrees below zero Celcius, according to the hospital.
Cooling balloon catheter ablation, which significantly reduces anesthesia and procedure time compared to high-frequency electrode resection, greatly reduces complications such as thrombosis, heart perforation, and pulmonary vein stenosis by minimizing tissue damage around lesions. Besides, it reduces anesthesia and treatment time, improving the treatment of arrhythmia patients, and has shown a therapeutic effect of 80% in patients with early seizure atrial fibrillation.
Atrial fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia disease. The heart beats fast and irregularly due to abnormal electrical signals generated in the atrium of the heart and mainly appears in patients with high blood pressure, heart failure, and valve disease, the hospital went on to say. In particular, patients with atrial fibrillation have a five times higher risk of stroke and three times higher risk of heart failure than healthy people, so early diagnosis and treatment are very important.
“In the past, high-frequency electrode resection, which destroys tissues by applying high-frequency electrical energy to pulmonary veins causing arrhythmia, was considered the standard treatment." Professor Hwang said. “Recently, however, cooling balloon catheter ablation procedure is far more preferred as it reduces treatment time, maximizes treatment efficacy, and reduces complications.”
Myongji Hospital has emerged as the center of multidisciplinary heart disease treatment in Korea, operating the region’s only cardiovascular center, which conducts heart surgery and transplants with a multidisciplinary heart rehabilitation center, and a separate ward, a hospital official said.
출처 : KBR(https://www.koreabiomed.com)
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