Procedure uses freezing in lieu of heat

Staff report

SHARON, PA.

Electrophysiologists at Sharon Regional Health System’s Heart and Vascular Institute are the first in Mercer and Lawrence counties to treat atrial fibrillation patients with cryoablation technology.

The technology involves freezing the heart tissue around the pulmonary veins to help stop abnormal electrical activity that causes an irregular heartbeat.

The procedure, performed in the cardiac catheterization suite, “provides an efficient approach for treating atrial fibrillation, a common, yet serious, heart rhythm condition,” said Dr. Maninder Bedi, medical director of the electrophysiology program at Sharon Regional and a physician who performs the procedure.

Heat ablation has been used for more than 10 years to treat atrial fibrillation and cryoablation, which freezes the affected tissue. The Food and Drug Administration approved cryoablation as an atrial fibrillation treatment.

During a cryoablation procedure, an electrophysiologist, a cardiologist with additional training in the electrical system of the heart and diagnosing and treating irregular heartbeats or arrhythmias, inserts a balloon catheter into a blood vessel, usually in the upper leg, and threads it through the body until it reaches the heart, institute officials said.

This narrow tube has an inflatable balloon on one end that engages the pulmonary vein. Once the balloon is positioned correctly, extreme cold energy flows through the catheter to destroy a small amount of tissue and restore a healthy heart rhythm, Dr. Bedi said.

Unlike heat-based ablation, cryoablation allows physicians to cool tissue to make sure it is the area causing the irregular heart rhythm.

In addition to Dr. Bedi, electrophysiologists Dr. Christopher Kolibash, M.D., and Dr. Glen Miske, D.O., also perform the procedure at Sharon Regional.