SUPRAVENTRICULAR TACHYCARDIA

An arrhythmia is an irregular heartbeat, a condition that affects more
than 10 million people worldwide. The irregularity can be a heartbeat
that is too fast (supraventricular tachycardia) or too slow
(bradycardia), but it is caused by a change or interruption in the
heart's normal reception and distribution of electrical impulses.

There are no patient stereotypes when it comes to arrhythmia. Anyone
can be affected, often without having any previous symptoms. Such was
the case for Dennis Lueken, a 17-year-old high school basketball player
in Illinois. The first time his condition appeared was after a game
when his heart began to race dangerously out of control. Thankfully, it
soon stabilized. Since there was no history of heart disease in
Dennis's family, doctors were puzzled and decided to wait. Two weeks
later, it happened again, and Dennis was referred to specialists who
diagnosed supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), a type of arrhythmia.

The standard treatment for supraventricular tachycardia, as with most
arrhythmias, is to use heat to ablate the defective pathways in the
heart that cause an abnormal electrical impulse. Because of the
position of the problem – supraventricular, meaning in the upper
chambers of the heart – doctors were concerned about a complication
that happens in about 1% of cases. The complication is that the
heat-based therapy may cauterize more tissue than the physician may
have intended. When this happens, the patient must have a permanent
pacemaker implanted for life.