The role of catheter ablation in the management of ventricular tachycardia

Tanawuttiwat, Tanyanan
Nazarian, Saman
Calkins, Hugh

¹Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
²Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

Corresponding author: Tel: +1 410 502 1953, Fax: +1 410 614 1345, Email: [email protected]

Received June 17, 2015

Received in revised form July 24, 2015

Accepted August 7, 2015

European Heart Journal 37(7):p 594-609, February 14, 2016. | DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehv421

The treatment strategy for ventricular tachycardia (VT) is guided by patient symptoms, the risk of sudden death estimated by VT mechanism and underlying cardiac structure, and the risk vs. benefit ratio of potential therapies. Over the last few decades, catheter ablation has emerged as the primary treatment of idiopathic VT and become an important management strategy in reducing VT burden in patients with structural heart disease. This article reviews the technique and outcomes of catheter ablation for ventricular arrhythmias as well as potential future directions for this procedure.