Cardiac ablation surgery
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Your heart is essentially an electrical circuit, the electrical pulse triggering chamber contractions in sequence as it moves through the pathway in the heart.
Sometimes people develop additional pathways that can cause ‘shortcircuits’, leading to irregular heart behaviour.
Cardiac ablation surgery, wires are passed through a catheter in the thigh into the femoral artery, and make their way up to the heart. These wires are used to ablate (burn/scar) the faulty areas of heart tissue so they stop conducting and causing problems.
In some circumstances cryoablation is done – freezing instead of burning.
This is slightly less effective however it allows the surgical team to ‘test’ the effect before the point of no return, and is normally done if the target area is deemed too close to critical tissues.
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