Press Release
Elmhurst Memorial Hospital is among first in area to offer cool fix for heart arrhythmia
For immediate release, April 5, 2010
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Kyle Bauer, Public Relations Coordinator, 630-993-5702
ELMHURST – Each heartbeat consists of a highly organized series of events in which all four chambers of the heart are expanding and contracting in a carefully choreographed manner. This process, which repeats itself 100,000 times a day, is controlled by an electrical impulse that must travel an exact route every time to keep the heart functioning normally.
When the pathway traveled by this impulse becomes blocked or short-circuited, it leads to an abnormal heart rhythm, which can create disabling symptoms or have life-threatening consequences if not addressed.
“We can effectively restore normal heart rhythm by ablating, or destroying, the tissue that is causing the problem,” said Apoor Gami, M.D., a cardiac electrophysiologist with Midwest Heart Specialists and member of the Elmhurst Memorial Hospital (EMH) Medical Staff. “This minimally invasive procedure, known as cardiac ablation, allows us to fix the short circuit in the heart’s electrical system.”
Cardiac radiofrequency ablation has been the standard of care for years, but a newer variation of the procedure is now giving Dr. Gami and his colleagues at EMH another tool to restore normal heart rhythm. Traditional cardiac radiofrequency ablation is performed using energy to heat, or cauterize, a small amount of heart tissue to the point where it is destroyed and normal electrical flow can continue.
In some cases, the exact size of the lesion is very important, such as when the damaged tissue is near a vital structure. That’s where cardiac cryoablation comes into play. Dr. Gami brought the procedure to EMH in January 2010, making it among the first hospitals in the western suburbs to have it available.
“With cryoablation, we are circulating a freezing coolant within a catheter, which destroys the tissue by pulling heat away,” he said. “The difference is that as soon as we stop pulling heat from the tissue, there is no residual energy source so we have more control over the size of the lesion we create.”
Dr. Gami, who has been specially trained to perform the procedure, said the concept has been used in other forms for decades, but only recently has it gained acceptance for adult arrhythmias. He believes it will become the standard treatment under the right circumstances.
“Cryoablation affords us more control and allows us to be safer when treating cardiac arrhythmias,” Dr. Gami said. “For our patients, it means they can take comfort in knowing we have immediate access to this technology during their ablation procedure if the need arises.”