Surgical treatment of arrhythmia

The surgical treatment of rhythm disorders began with interruption of the atrio-ventricular conduction by surgical section of the His bundle, then of the accessory path (Kent bundle) in the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. Later on, surgery was extended to the treatment of chronic ventricular tachycardias. At a time when surgery seems to be progressively replaced by ablation methods using physical agents, electric shock or radio-frequency current, applied through endoluminal probes, it seemed justified to evaluate the established surgical procedures in the treatment of rhythm disorders. Therefore, this study proposes to review the current place of these methods which, in the last few years, have been modified in order to improve the quality of the results, decrease the mortality and specify their indications.