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.