A sudden increase in heart rate, chest tightness, and dizziness can be a sign of arrhythmia. If it is a serious arrhythmia, it can lead to shortness of breath, chest pain, and even fainting and shock, or even sudden death. In the past, surgical treatments mainly used electrocautery with cardiac catheterization to remove the arrhythmia, but complications may occur. The medical team at NTU Hospital has developed a new technology called "photon knife" stereotactic radiotherapy, which can annihilate the lesions and reduce the damage to the surrounding normal tissues.
To treat severe arrhythmia, the medical team at NTUH has developed a new technique called "Photon Knife" stereotactic radiation therapy, which can annihilate the lesion and reduce the damage to the surrounding normal tissues. (Photo courtesy of National Taiwan University Hospital)Suppressing severe ventricular arrhythmias, traditionally removed by electrocautery
The current method of suppressing severe ventricular arrhythmias relies on medication, and if the medication is ineffective or produces side effects, then the ventricular foci are located with a 3D stereo-localization system, and removed by electrocautery. This invasive, minimally invasive procedure has a success rate of only about 50 to 80%, and there is about a 5 to 10% chance of complications.
Taiwan University Hospital develops a "photon knife" with image navigation to accurately destroy lesions
Taiwan University Hospital's stereotactic radiotherapy, developed through an interdisciplinary collaboration between the Department of Cardiology, the Department of Imaging Medicine, and the Department of Radiation Oncology, is a new method of treating severe ventricular arrhythmias, also known as the "photon knife," which can accurately calculate the dose delivered and the exposure rate. It is also known as the "Photon Knife", which can accurately calculate the delivered dose and irradiation range to achieve excellent conformal dose distribution, and with the image navigation system, it can accurately align the position before the treatment and correct the error during the treatment, so as to achieve the goal of destroying the lesion and reducing the damage to the surrounding normal tissues. So far, NTUH has successfully completed the treatment of five patients.
Dr. Ling-Yuei Chen also said that the most advanced photon knife stereotactic radiotherapy, with precise positioning, respiratory control and image navigation, will maximize the effect of photon knife radiotherapy. (Photo courtesy of National Taiwan University Hospital)In addition, severe ventricular arrhythmia is the main cause of sudden cardiac death, and the most important treatment is the implantation of the defibrillator (ICD). The defibrillator can detect the onset of severe ventricular arrhythmias and administer electric shocks, however, it is unable to inhibit the onset of severe ventricular arrhythmias. Patients with frequent severe ventricular arrhythmias may be subjected to several, or even dozens of shocks from the defibrillator within a short period of time, which is referred to as an electric storm in medical terms, and must be intervened in immediately.
The main reason for the failure of electrocautery in traditional cardiac catheterization is that the ventricular muscle has a certain thickness, and if the ventricular lesion is located deep in the myocardium, the heat from the electrocautery cannot penetrate to remove the lesion. However, the high-energy radiation used in oncology treatments does not have this limitation and can easily penetrate the tissue to destroy deep lesions.
Photon knife radiation therapy advantages: painless, no wounds, no side effects after surgery
Professor Chen Wenzhong, director of the Department of Cardiology at National Taiwan University Hospital, said that the five cases that have been successfully completed were patients who could not accept the traditional cardiac catheterization electrocautery treatment, or the response to the traditional treatment was not good. The first step in the process is for the cardiologist to determine where the arrhythmia is occurring through electrophysiology, and then for the imaging physician to identify the myocardial lesion through cardiac imaging, and then for the radiation oncologist to determine the extent of the treatment and the dosage and administer the radiation.
The radiation treatment process takes only about 15 minutes, and the treatment is painless and wound-free, and the patient is tracked for several months after the surgery without any side effects. Dr. Ling-Yuei Chen also said that the most advanced photon knife stereotactic radiotherapy, with precise positioning, respiratory control and image navigation, will maximize the effect of photon knife radiotherapy and minimize the side effects of chemoradiation, as well as the expected chance of late radiation damage is also not high.