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Persons with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (WPW) have changes in cardiac conduction, which in some patients lead to disabling symptoms not controllable by medication. In such cases, two invasive treatments are available: catheter- induced ablation of accessory conduction pathways, or surgical ablation. This retrospective review compared the costs of the two interventions.
Eleven patients underwent catheter ablation, which was successful in eight cases (73 percent), and 11 underwent surgery, which in all cases completely eliminated WPW- associated accessory pathway conduction. Even assuming that all patients who failed catheter procedures underwent surgery, the estimated mean cost per patient was significantly lower for catheter ablation ($2…