Surgical treatment of ventricular tachycardia after epicardial mapping studies

Abstract

Two patients with intractable, life threatening ventricular tachycardias were studied using intracardiac electrograms and programmed electrical stimulation of the heart. Both patients were shown to have an underlying reentry mechanism in the ventricles, as the basis for the tachycardias. Both patients underwent epicardial mapping studies at cardiac surgery, and the site of reentry was established. In one patient, the reentry front was found to start in the posterobasal region of the left ventricle, and in the other patient, the reentry front was found in the anterobasal region of the right ventricle. In both patients, surgical interruption of the reentry front was carried out. Both patients were alive and free from tachycardias at the time of writing.