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In the US, arrhythmia is offered to treat by freezing
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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The most effective method of treating arrhythmia is now high-frequency cauterization of patients with heart disease. A new modification of this method replaces the moxibustion with freezing: it is less dangerous for neighboring healthy tissues and allows treating a patient area of rather large size.
Atrial fibrillation is one of the most dangerous diseases of the heart . This is not only the most common of arrhythmias, but also the most resistant to treatment: in about half of the cases, drug therapy ends in failure. Because of the mismatch in the heart rhythm, a person may experience dizziness, weakness, difficulty breathing, but the most dangerous consequence of arrhythmia is the formation of thrombi and heart attack. If you do not take any measures, the risk of myocardial infarction in a patient with atrial fibrillation increases fivefold.
There is a good alternative to medical methods of arrhythmia treatment - radiofrequency catheter ablation. Its essence boils down to finding and neutralizing the source of rhythmic instability in the heart, or arrhythmogenic zone. Using a special catheter with an electrode at the end, doctors find an arrhythmogenic area in the heart, after which it is cauterized by a radio electrode. Usually abnormal zones are found in the left atrium, at the entrance to the pulmonary vein.
A new technology offered by doctors from the Memorial Hospital at Northwestern University (Illinois, USA) replaces the heat treatment of the heart site for its freezing. The meaning of the method remains the same: to neutralize the source of the rhythmic mismatch, but to do this not with the help of a "microwave oven", but with the help of a "refrigerator". The electrode does not cauterize the heart site, but cools it to an extremely low temperature. According to doctors, freezing has several advantages before heating. First, freezing less harms neighboring healthy areas of the heart muscle and other organs for which moxibustion does not pass without a trace. Secondly, it allows for a single treatment to process a large area, while moxibustion can leave uncleared spaces in diseased tissue.
The technology has already proved itself from the very best side: in 70% of patients who underwent "freezing of the heart", during the year there were no repeated symptoms of atrial fibrillation. 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, which they could only dream of earlier.
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