Surgical Ablation of Ventricular Tachycardia in the Normothermic Heart

Nineteen patients with ventricular tachycardia were subjected to surgery using a normothermic map-guided approach. Surgical ablation was performed by endocardial resection and cryoablation. Eleven patients had multiple distinct morphologies, and eight patients needed concomitant coronary artery bypass surgery. Seventeen patients survived the perioperative period, and all but one patient had a successful surgical ablation of all documented morphologies. Ventricular tachycardia surgery can be accomplished with the sequential map-guided approach on the normothermic beating heart, and in this era of the implantable defibrillator should remain a mainstay of the surgical treatment for ventricular tachycardia.