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In the US, arrhythmia is proposed to be treated by freezing
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
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The most effective method of treating arrhythmia is currently high-frequency cauterization of diseased areas of the heart. A new modification of this method replaces cauterization with freezing: it is less dangerous for adjacent healthy tissues and allows treating a diseased area of a fairly large size.
One of the most dangerous heart diseases is atrial fibrillation. It is not only the most common of the arrhythmias, but also the most resistant to treatment: in about half of the cases, drug therapy fails. Due to the discrepancy in the heart rhythm, a person may experience dizziness, weakness, difficulty breathing, but the most dangerous consequence of arrhythmia is the formation of blood clots and heart attack. If no measures are taken, the risk of myocardial infarction in a person suffering from atrial fibrillation increases fivefold.
There is a good alternative to drug treatments for arrhythmia - radiofrequency catheter ablation. Its essence is to find and neutralize the source of rhythmic instability in the heart, or the arrhythmogenic zone. Using a special catheter with an electrode at the end, doctors find the arrhythmogenic area in the heart, after which it is cauterized with a radioelectrode. Usually, abnormal zones are found in the left atrium, at the entrance to the pulmonary vein.
A new technology offered by doctors from Northwestern University Memorial Hospital (Illinois, USA) replaces heat treatment of a heart area with freezing it. The idea behind the method remains the same: to neutralize the source of rhythmic discord, but to do this not with a "microwave," but with a "refrigerator." The electrode does not cauterize the heart area, but cools it to an extremely low temperature. According to doctors, freezing has several advantages over heating. Firstly, freezing causes less harm to adjacent healthy areas of the heart muscle and other organs, for which cauterization does not pass without a trace. Secondly, it allows for a large area to be treated in one go, while cauterization can leave untreated gaps in the diseased tissue.
The technology has already proven itself to be very successful: 70% of patients who underwent "heart freezing" did not experience any recurrent symptoms of atrial fibrillation for a year. For comparison: in the case of drug treatment, the share of such lucky ones was only 7%. Cryotherapy of the arrhythmogenic zone of the heart allowed patients to return to normal physical and emotional life, something they could only dream of before.
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