Electrode catheter ablation of resistant ventricular tachycardia in arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia: experience of 13 patients with a mean follow-up of 45 months

Electrode catheter ablation (fulguration) is a new technique for the treatment of ventricular tachycardia resistant to medical treatment. It proved effective in our hands in a series of 65 cases of ventricular tachycardia of varied origin. This paper reports the early results in a subgroup of 13 patients suffering from arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia in whom shocks ranging from 160 to 280J, single or multiple, in one or up to three sessions were delivered. In the 11 patients surviving the DC ablation procedure single or multiple monomorphic sustained VT was brought under control. However, four patients (36%) required therapeutic antiarrhythmic treatment following the fulguration therapy. During the learning phase one case of death was related to poor catheter selection and the other to poor protocol. The post-mortem study of the effect of shocks depends on the anatomical structure to which the shocks have been delivered.