Cryogenic balloon offers hope to heart patients
Category Featured, Health | Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
ATLANTA, Georgia — An experimental ablation therapy system that freezes heart tissue with a balloon catheter to treat a common heart rhythm disorder is far more effective than drug therapy, a study found Monday.
Researchers compared the safety and efficacy of the Arctic Front CryoAblation Catheter System produced by US firm Medtronic to drug therapy over at least one year in 245 patients in the United States and Canada.
A year after the non-surgical procedure, nearly 70 percent of patients treated by the system no longer suffered from paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.
Only seven percent of patients treated with traditional drug therapy, which can have significant secondary effects, no longer experience the irregular heart rhythm that starts and stops on its own.