atrial fibrillation

Ralph J. Damiano Jr., MD, an internationally known cardiac surgeon, has been named chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine.

Doctors at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are performing a new procedure to treat atrial fibrillation, a common irregular heartbeat. Available at only a handful of U.S. medical centers, this “hybrid” procedure combines minimally invasive surgical techniques with the latest advances in catheter ablation. The two-pronged approach gives doctors access to both the inside and outside of the heart at the same time, helping to more completely block the erratic electrical signals that cause atrial fibrillation.

This illustration of the Cox-Maze procedure shows the ablation lines in the left atrium.Heart surgeons at the School of Medicine have helped usher in a new era in the surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation. Using radiofrequency devices — rather than a scalpel — they’ve greatly shortened the surgery and made it significantly easier to perform. WUSM surgeon Ralph J. Damiano Jr. and colleagues have played a vital role in developing the devices, which deliver high-energy waves to heart tissue and very quickly create scars or ablations.

This illustration of the Cox-Maze procedure shows the ablation lines in the left atrium.Heart surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have helped usher in a new era in the surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation. Using radiofrequency devices — rather than a scalpel — they’ve greatly shortened the surgery and made it significantly easier to perform. WUSM surgeon Ralph J. Damiano Jr. and colleagues have played a vital role in developing the devices, which deliver high-energy waves to heart tissue and very quickly create scars or ablations. More…

Faddis and colleagues use a catheter with a magnet at its tip combined with a magnetic guidance system machine to help guide the magnetic catheter as it moves inside the heart.Thanks to advances in cardiology and in magnetic technology, it’s now possible to use magnetic fields to guide tools used to treat certain heart rhythm problems. Cardiologists can treat heart rhythm abnormalities without surgery by using catheters to deliver treatment. Catheters are long, narrow tubes that are run from the groin to the heart via blood vessels using X-ray images for guidance. A team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has found that the Magnetic Navigation System (MNS) developed by Stereotaxis Inc. allows them to guide catheters within the heart more accurately. Instead of a standard design, MNS catheters contain a magnetic tip. In the same way the needle on a compass aligns itself with the direction of the Earth’s magnetic field, the catheter’s magnetic tip aligns itself with a magnetic field surrounding the patient and allows physicians to more easily guide the catheter in order to locate and treat problem areas in the heart.