Therapy for cardiac arrhythmias successful for the first time

Now also in Germany: radiation therapy for cardiac arrhythmia

A new high-precision radiation therapy can cure life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias with a one-time treatment - even those in which all other available treatments have failed. A 79-year-old man was recently successfully healed as the first patient in Germany with the new method.

For the first time in Germany, the Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) has the opportunity to cure severe cardiac arrhythmias that resist any other therapy. In just one treatment on November 30, 2018, a 79-year-old man was cured of his life-threatening condition. The man is the first patient in Germany treated in this way, and he is one of the first patients in the world to benefit from this new method.

Unless current treatments for cardiac arrhythmias fail, patients are helpless in their condition. The new and state-of-the-art radiotherapy could change that. (Image: Siarhei / fotolia.com)

An incurable case has been made treatable

As the treating physicians report, the patient suffered from a severe heart muscle disease. He received the maximum possible medication and yet his implanted defibrillator triggered an almost daily electric shock to keep the man alive. "After the successful irradiation, the malignant cardiac arrhythmias have not yet recurred", reports Professor Dr. med. Hendrik Bonnemeier in a press release on the successful treatment.

An innovative and state-of-the-art process

The first treatment was planned half a year in advance. Professor Bonnemeier and his colleagues used the best possible equipment to create a high-resolution image of the patient's left ventricle. This made it possible to pinpoint the target region that was to be irradiated during treatment. A specialist team of radiotherapists and medical physicists then carried out the targeted radiation, with which the cardiac arrhythmias were eliminated.

Pioneering therapy for severe cardiac arrhythmias

According to the medical specialists, this new method is a pioneering therapy option for people whose tachycardia does not respond to common treatments. In the coming year, this treatment will be examined more closely in a clinical trial in affected patients. (Vb)