Doctors at a Milwaukee hospital say they've successfully treated an elderly woman's erratic heartbeat with radiofrequency-generated heat. Someday the treatment could be used to replace certain types of heart surgery with a 15-minute office procedure. The patient is being discharged less than a week after surgery. The radiofrequency technique uses a catheter probe with electrodes and thermocouples. The surgeon uses radiofrequency heat from the probe to make precise lesions, destroying small amounts of heart muscle to correct impulses.
Atrial fibrillation is a rapid, erratic beating of the heart's upper chamber.
It affects about 2 million Americans and has been linked to stroke as well as increased mortality risks. Researchers are reporting the deaths of five liposuction patients over a five-year period in the New York City area that may have been caused in part by the anesthetic lidocaine, which was used in the procedures. High doses of the drug can dangerously slow the heartbeat. The report, by researchers at the New York University School of Medicine, appears in The New England Journal of Medicine. Rao researched nearly 50,000 deaths reported or referred to by the New York City's medical examiner.