Aldona Gružienė, Gintautas Vaitiekaitis, Aleksandras Vitkus, Raimundas Lekas, Tomas Kazakevičius, Algimantas Kirkutis, Algis Noreika, Darijus Skaudickas, Donatas Vasiliauskas, Greta Pečiulytė
Abstract
Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is minimally invasivetreatment based on a thermal tissue destruction.Having reviewed the application of RFA method ina global context, we can state that it is widely usedmodern procedure in many economically developedcountries. In many cases, RFA is qualified aseffective, safe and economically profitable. There isa wide spectrum of clinical applications of RFA thatcover diverse fields of medicine. RFA applicationin cardiology has become markedly significant. In1976, RFA was introduced into clinical practice asan innovative management of cardiac arrhythmias.The developement of nonsurgical minimally invasivecardiac arrhythmias treatment by radiofrequencycatheter ablation (RFCA) procedure is greatlyassociated with evolution of cardiac surgery in generaland the establishment of cardiac centers. Eraof Lithuanian cardiac surgery had begun in 1960‘s,when the first cardiac center in Lithuania was established.Currently, three cardiac centers are functioningin Lithuania. Arrhytmias treatment by RFCAwas introduced into Lithuanian clinical practice inthe mentioned cardiac centers where it is performedonly there up to now.Regarding the incidence of performed RFCAs forthe arrhythmias (total of 3942 RFCAs over the fiveyearperiod between 2007 and 2011), this treatmentmethod can be defined as a routine procedure in thecardiac centers of Lithuania. There was showed anupward trend in the number of performed RFCAprocedures for arrhythmias over the last quinquenniumin Lithuania, as the performance has grownby 3.75% for five consecutive years from 2007 and2011, suggesting that this treatment method maybecome more and more popular in the future clinicalpractice.
Keyword(s): cardiac arrhythmias, minimally invasive arrhythmias treatment, cardiac surgery, radiofrequency catheter ablation, RFCA, radiofrequency ablation, RFA
DOI: 10.5200/sm-hs.2014.124
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