Remote magnetic catheter navigation: more than just bells and whistles ?

Excerpt

Catheter ablation is nowadays an established treatment modality for both atrial and ventricular tachyarrhythmias. Manual navigation of the ablation catheter can be challenging in patients with a complex cardiac anatomy due to, for example, (surgically corrected or palliated) congenital heart defects, resulting in a long procedure time and excessive X-ray exposure. In the past decades, sophisticated mapping and ablation techniques have been developed in order to improve the outcome of ablative therapy. These technologies include remote navigation systems such as the magnetic navigation system (Stereotaxis Inc.) and the non-magnetic robotic navigation system (Sensei Hansen Medical). …