Crotone: innovative heart surgery without X-rays.

For the first time in Calabria it was performed an ablation procedure for junctional tachycardia, without the use of X-rays, on a patient with recurrent heart palpitations. It happened on Wednesday, November 27th at the “San Giovanni di Dio” hospital in Crotone.The patient was discharged two days later, on Friday 29th and is in excellent health.

The UOC of Cardiology/UTIC of the Crotone hospital confirms itself once again among the departments of excellence in the regional panorama. In fact, for about 20 years, in Crotone, trans-catheter ablation interventions have been performed, which today represents the first choice therapy for the treatment of many cardiac arrhythmias. Usually, however, The positioning of the electrocatheters inside the cardiac cavities and their visualization during the procedures is done through the use of X-rays, a method that subjects both the patient and the operators to radiation equivalent to that of 200 chest X-rays.

Last week the first intervention without the aid of X-rays took place, which was possible because the company management recently equipped the Cardiology Department with a device capable of carrying out a virtual 3D reconstruction of the heart's anatomy. which is based on electromagnetic information collected from the movement of catheters that reach the heart chambers via venous or arterial routes and connected to a three-dimensional reconstruction software.

The top management of the Pythagorean health company expressed satisfaction with the excellent outcome of the operation and the modern technique used by the team in the operating room. In fact, 3D mapping of the heart, in addition to avoiding the use of X-rays, reconstructs the anatomy of the organ. and provides additional information on the properties of the cardiac tissue, making the ablation procedure even safer and more effective, as it is possible to more precisely identify the point of origin of the arrhythmias.