Referring Patients for Arrhythmia Management & Treatment

Using state-of-the-art technologies, the arrhythmia monitoring lab staff work closely with our electrophysiologists to identify patients at high risk of sudden cardiac death and alert referring physicians when significant rhythm abnormalities are detected.

For many patients VT ablation is the best way to reduce the burden of symptoms, ICD shocks, hospitalizations, and medications. Ablation is a minimally invasive procedure under sedation or general anesthesia that uses catheters inserted through blood vessels to make a three-dimensional electrical map of the heart to identify and eliminate the source of ventricular tachycardia or premature ventricular contractions. The ablation procedure is safe and effective, while in some cases, allowing for same-day discharge from the medical center.

Reducing the effect of adrenaline from the autonomic nervous system on the heart can help treat ventricular tachycardia. In collaboration with the Chronic Pain Anesthesia team at BIDMC we can perform temporary nerve blocks to treat VT in the hospital. In select patients, we collaborate with the Thoracic Surgery team to perform minimally invasive surgery to remove some of the sympathetic nerves to the heart for a more durable treatment.

Some patients with VT, despite medical or procedural treatments, are candidates for investigational uses of noninvasive radiation therapy targeted to the source of VT in the heart. This treatment is offered in close collaboration with our colleagues in the Department of Radiation Oncology.

Peter J. Zimetbaum, MD, is the Richard and Susan Smith Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at Harvard Medical School; Associate Chief and Clinical Director of Cardiology at BIDMC. He is a clinical electrophysiologist with a particular interest in the clinical management of atrial fibrillation, sudden death syndromes and complex device management. Dr. Zimetbaum directs the ECG and Arrhythmia Core Laboratory at the Baim Institute for Clinical Research and is the co-editor of Cardiology in Review.

Gregory Michaud, MD, is an experienced clinician, researcher, and well known as a pioneer in diagnosing and treating complex arrhythmias. He received his MD degree from the University of Maryland in Baltimore. He completed his medical training at Boston University Hospitals and Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellowship at Tufts University. After leading the Electrophysiology Program at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Dr. Michaud returned to Boston and was most recently on the staff at the MGH Center for Cardiac Arrhythmias.

Andre d’Avila, MD is the Director of Electrophysiology Research. Dr. d’Avila also maintains a part-time appointment as a consulting electrophysiologist at the Hospital Cardiologico Florianopolis, Brazil. Dr. d’Avila is an internationally renowned clinician, teacher and researcher. His primary research focus is the mapping and ablation of complex atrial and ventricular arrhythmias. He and his colleagues in Brazil have pioneered the field of epicardial ablation, and Dr. d’Avila was instrumental in bringing this technique to the United States. He has authored over 200 original scientific articles and 20 book chapters.