Introduction
Radiofrequency (RF) ablation is the standard source of thermal energy used in electrophysiology. To eliminate the arrhythmia foci, the ablation catheter must deliver the energy as close as possible to those foci (less than 5mm). Several strategies have been used to increase the depth of a lesion: bigger catheters, irrigated catheters, and retractable needle-tip catheter. For even deeper foci, simultaneous unipolar ablation and bipolar catheter ablation have also been used.1
This study explores a new method to deliver RF to deeper locations using an already available pacemaker lead. The Medtronic 3038 4F bipolar pacemaker lead is available since early 2000s, but in 2017 its use to deep septal ventricular pacing was first described, to reach the left bundle branch coming from the right side, thus crossing all the septal depth.2 It is hypothesized that RF can be delivered through the 3830 lead and an ex-vivo animal model was used to test this hypothesis.