Surgical therapy for patients with supraventricular tachycardia

Over the past 20 years, surgical techniques have been developed to treat a number of different types of supraventricular tachyarrhythmias. In this continually developing area of cardiac surgery, advances in surgical treatment have been made by applying newer and more sophisticated techniques of intraoperative mapping and by a greater understanding in the mechanisms of these arrhythmias. The supraventricular arrhythmias that are currently amenable to curative surgical therapies are listed in Table 1. The majority of these therapies are well-established and no longer considered experimental; as such, any new surgical or non-surgical therapy needs to be compared directly to these well-established, curative techniques. Conversely, those surgical therapies still considered to be experimental should be performed only by surgeons and institutions having the necessary experience, equipment, and expertise. This article will discuss the salient anatomic and technical aspects of these surgical techniques.