We write often here about procedures and treatments that seem to create new health issues even as they treat some existing problem. Here’s proof of at least one such procedure that’s now been proven NOT to do new damage (at least, no the damage they thought it might be creating). A recent study published in Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology (PACE) has proven that the use of catheter ablation to treat supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) doesn’t cause injury to a patient’s cardiac nerves, possibly artificially accelerating heart rates following the procedure.
In some cases, of course, the ablation is being performed in the first place to repair a problem that was caused by a previous heart procedure (e.g., a patient who gets a valvuloplasty (heart valve repair) who only started having occurrences of SVT after the repair procedure has to get an ablation to stop a certain part of the heart from going into overdrive).
Well, when you’re working with something as tightly and intricately interwoven as the systems of the human body, anything that helps and doesn’t hurt in another way is a victory.