Zeitschrift für Kardiologie
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Radiofrequency catheter ablation has been established as a first line therapy for the curative treatment of patients with atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia and atrioventricular tachycardia encompassing accessory pathways as well as for ablation of the "normal" AV-junction. For these indications, the success rates exceed 90%. Acute complications during ablation of accessory pathway and ablation of the "normal" AV-junction occur in approximately 2-5% of patients treated. ⋯ In addition, first clinical results indicate that modification of anterograde AV-nodal conduction properties in patients with atrial fibrillation and fast ventricular rate by radiofrequency application to postero- and midseptal sites might be a useful therapeutic tool to slow ventricular rate. Because of the high success-rate and the relative low incidence of severe procedure related complications, the indications of radiofrequency ablation procedures for the treatment of supraventricular tachycardias will be extended in the future. In addition, it might be reasonable to expect that during the next years, all types of supraventricular tachycardia, except atrial fibrillation, can be targeted and cured by radiofrequency ablation in the majority of cases.