Until now, when people had arrhytmogenic foci (and thus severe tachycardia), the procedure was to burn the focus with either laser, or an RF probe, I have a friend that has undergone this procedure, and until they found the right spot, they damaged a major portion of his heart. So instead of burning the bad focus, a cryoablation catheter is used to freeze it (with a number of additional post operative benefits). The big advantage is that one starts the procedure, by first cooling (to about 5C) the target tissue, and if the arrhytmia stops, you know you got the right spot, and cool the tip of the catheter to -35 C, to ablate the bad tissue. If the arrhytmia persists, you look for another spot. The advantage is that no damage is inflicted to tissue cooled to 5C, and thus you not only ablate, but prior to ablation, you essentially map the tissues. This technology, which is a minimally invasive technique (the catheter is typically inserted like balloon catheter through the femoral artery) a is now used by Cryocath Technologies Inc., a Canadian company. For obvious reasons, I will not comment publicly on companies that are involved with some of my patents (I presume that is what raised the question).
Zeev |
