Robots and Lasers: the Future of Cardiac Tissue Ablation?
The article stresses that the future of medicine is tied up in robotics and lasers. In the last 10 years it has actually started realizing that robotic systems are beginning to play a role in surgery with the aid of zoom microscope. With an increasing percentage of atrial fibrillation and with insight that atrial fibrillation results in poor long-term survival, attempts have been made to create a surgical cure for such condition.
Atrial fibrillation or AF is the most common, abnormal rhythm of the heart. The heartbeats and pumps blood with a regular rhythm. The normal heart rate would range from 60 to 80 beats per minute, regular in rhythm. The heart may beat faster or slower with a shorter or longer interval between beats. This regular rhythm occurs as a result of regular electrical currents that travel through the heart and cause the muscle of the heart to contract. In AF however, the electrical discharges are irregular and rapid. This thus results to the heartbeats irregularly and rapidly. AF is a common rhythmic disorder of the heart. During AF, solely the SA node does not generate electrical discharges.
The electrical discharges instead would come from other parts of the atria of the heart. These abnormal discharges are very fast and irregular. This may reach up to 350 discharges per minute. The rapid and irregular discharges cause ineffective contractions of the hearts atria. This reduces the ability of the atria to pump blood into the ventricles as the heart quivers instead of pumping. In a heart that is beating normally, the rate of ventricular contraction is the same as the rate of atrial contraction. In cases of AF on the other hand, the rate of ventricular contraction is less than the rate of atrial contraction. The rate of ventricular contraction in AF is determined by the speed of transmission of the atrial electrical discharges through the AV node. In people with a normal AV node, the rate of ventricular contraction in untreated AF usually ranges from 80 to 180 beats per minute.
As attempts to treat atrial fibrillation with the help of lasers with the aid of zoom microscope were being assessed in the study presented in the article. The results were discussed briefly. It tells that much work has been done in the past several years to develop a less invasive surgical option to achieve pulmonary vein ablation. It introduces the use of Robots and laser as an option to treat the condition with the aid of a microscope. Researchers claim that laser is a unique energy source for tissue ablation because it is a form of light. Researchers in this study conclude that while traditional energy sources focus on applying heat based elements to the tissues surface allowing temperature to propagate across the thickness of the tissue laser is an innovative, tissue specific energy for creating tissue ablation. Read more on this subject
