Bad Oeynhausen,
The new workplace of Professor Dr. Philipp Sommer, Director of the Clinic for Electrophysiology and Rhythmology at the Herz- und Diabeteszentrum NRW (HDZ NRW), Bad Oeynhausen, is ready after just 3 weeks of renovation work and has a great deal to offer. Cardiac catheter laboratory no. 6 is home to one of the very latest catheter ablation devices anywhere in the world. The combination of an "ARTIS zee floor" (Siemens) with an integrated navigation unit (MediGuide, Abbott) facilitates particularly gentle and low-radiation catheter treatment for patients with various types of cardiac dysrhythmia.
"This of course profits the whole team working on such interventions in the cardiac catheter laboratory", Sommer explained. As a certified specialist who has successfully performed more than 1,500 cardiac catheter interventions with this technology, Sommer brought his experience to the Clinic for Electrophysiology and Rhythmology when he became its Director in November 2018. The new device produces over 90 per cent less radiation than comparable systems, due to a special catheter imaging technique. "The fluoroscopy time for a conventional procedure to treat atrial fibrillation, so-called pulmonary vein isolation, now takes far less than a minute. Other catheter systems need 15 to 20 minutes."
During pulmonary vein isolation, a catheter is advanced via the groin to the left atrium. From there the positions of the four pulmonary veins are mapped by catheter. The resulting map is visualized in the laboratory via a three-dimensional reconstruction on a large screen. In order to prevent the abnormal electrical activity which constitutes atrial fibrillation, Sommer then ablates the muscular tissue around the pulmonary veins using precision-controlled high-frequency current. This ablation process takes about two hours. Around 1,000 procedures of this kind are performed at the Herz- und Diabeteszentrum NRW every year.
Further information:
Herz- und Diabeteszentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen
Universitätsklinik der Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Press Office and Public Relations
Manager: Anna Reiss
Georgstr. 11
D-32545 Bad Oeynhausen
Tel. 0049 5731 97-1955
Fax 0049 5731 97-2028
E-Mail: info@hdz-nrw.de
www.hdz-nrw.de
