WRMC Physician is States First to Use New Heart Catheter Technology
by June 9, 2014 12:00 am 141 views
A Fayetteville physician is using new technology to increase success in a procedure to cure atrial fibrillation (Afib).
Dr. Soliman Soliman, an electrophysiologist at Washington Regional Medical Center’s Walker Heart Institute, recently became the first physician in Arkansas to perform a catheter ablation using the ThermaCool SmartTouch, a catheter that provides computer feedback regarding the amount of pressure being applied during ablation procedures.
The technology was approved in February by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The device is the first therapeutic catheter approved in the U.S. that enables direct, real-time measurement of contact force during catheter ablation procedures.
During the procedure, a thin flexible tube, a catheter, is inserted through a blood vessel in the patient’s leg and guided to the heart.
Radio frequency energy is delivered to certain areas of the heart in an effort to interrupt abnormal electrical signals in the heart that cause Afib.
The new technology allows doctors to accurately control the amount of contact force applied to heart tissue, making for a safer and more effective procedure.
Afib affects nearly 3 million American adults. As many as 12 million people in the country will have the condition by 2050, according to the American Heart Association.