Feasibility and Safety of a Minimally Invasive Approach to Catheter Ablation for Atrioventricular Nodal Reentrant Tachycardia

This study assessed the feasibility and safety of a minimally invasive approach to catheter ablation in 72 consecutive patients with A V nodal reentrant tachycardia. A 3‐catheter approach was used in the first 19 patients. In the other 53 patients, a 2‐catheter approach was employed. Ablation was successful in all patients after a mean of 3 ± 3 RF applications. Procedure and fluoroscopy times were 62 ± 20 mins and 8 ± 5 mins respectively. Slow pathway was ablated in 43 patients (60%). Transient A V block occurred in 6 patients; there was no permanent AV block. These results suggest that it is feasible to perform ablation for AV nodal reentrant tachycardia safely and with high efficacy using a minimally invasive approach. This has the potential to lessen patient discomfort and to further shorten procedure and radiation exposure times.