Cryotherapy Catheter for Treating Arrhythmias

A new catheter device is used in minimally invasive cryotherapy for cardiac arrhythmias. The device, called Freezor Max, has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

For the approved indication, Freezor Max is used to make lesions on the outside (epicardial) surface of the heart as well as the inside (endocardial) surface. Then it is used to create a focal lesion on the epicardium or endocardium by delivering temperatures as low as -80oC at its tip. The ability to make larger or deeper lesions is well suited to treat arrhythmias such as ventricular tachycardia (VT) accessory pathways, atrial flutter, and atrial fibrillation (AF).

Freezor Max is also undergoing evaluation as part of the toolbox approach for the treatment of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. In this protocol, it is used to create a bi-directional block of the cavotricuspid isthmus, which is the commonly accepted method for the treatment of atrial flutter. Freezor Max is the product of CryoCath Technologies, Inc. (Montreal, Canada).

"There is no widely accepted procedure to safely ablate highly prevalent arrhythmias like VT, particularly when they originate near critical structures in the heart such as coronary blood vessels,” said Dr. Patrick Tchou, M.D., section head, electrophysiology & pacing, Cleveland Clinic Heart Center (OH, USA). "The early use of cryoablation to treat such arrhythmias has been very encouraging and a more powerful device to reach these difficult-to-reach locations in the heart has broad clinical utility.”




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