Loyola First Area Hospital to use Robotic Catheter

Loyola is the first area hospital to use a new robotic catheter guidance system to treat abnormal heart rhythms.

The robotic system enhances a doctor's natural ability, and is expected to contribute to improved procedural outcomes.

The robotic system is used in a procedure, called an ablation, which treats irregular heartbeats such as atrial fibrillation. The treatment destroys small areas of heart tissue that trigger irregular heartbeats.

Atrial fibrillation, often called A-fib, is the most common form of irregular heartbeat. More than two million Americans have A-fib, and doctors diagnose about 160,000 new cases each year.

In an ablation, an electrophysiologist inserts a catheter (thin tube) through a small incision in the patient's groin and guides it to the heart. The tip of the catheter delivers radiofrequency energy that burns away small areas in the heart where erratic electrical signals originate.

In a traditional manual procedure, the physician guides the catheter by gently pushing, pulling, twisting and turning it. In the robotic system, the physician sits at a work station, where he manipulates the catheter by operating a joy stick. The movement of the catheter is displayed on a computer screen. When, for example, the physician moves the joystick to the right, guidewires embedded in the catheter move the catheter in that direction.