Catheter Ablation of Ventricular Tachycardia and Ventricular Fibrillation at the University of Colorado at Denver and
Health Science Center
The Ventricular Tachycardia Ablation Program at UCDHSC strives to achieve the highest level of efficacy while
maintaining the safest approaches that have been thoroughly evaluated by experienced high-volume academic centers. Each patient with ventricular tachycardia (VT) or ventricular fibrillation (VF) is evaluated and treated
individually and therefore there is no specific approach that we employ for everyone who undergoes the procedure.
Most patients seek medical attention for their ventricular arrhythmias because they experience symptoms of
palpitations, syncope, or painful shocks from an ICD. VT ablation has not been shown to improve survival but it has
proven to be an effective treatment for controlling symptoms and preventing ICD shocks (Figure 1).
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The subtypes of VT include outflow tract tachycardias arising from the regions of the aortic and pulmonic valves,
idiopathic VT in structurally normal hearts (usually arising from fascicular tissue), and VT utilizing circuits defined
within or on the borders of myocardial scar in patients with ischemic or non-ischemic cardiomyopathy. The last type of
VT can sometimes present as incessant VT requiring an urgent evaluation and ablation.
In addition, there are some patients who experience shocks from an implanted cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) for VF
but actually have VT or premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) that trigger VF (Figures 2 and 3).
