Papers of the Week

Epicardial approach to ventricular tachycardia (VT) ablation is mainly performed under general anesthesia (GA). Although catheter manipulation and ablation in the epicardial space could be painful, GA lowers blood pressure and may interfere with arrhythmia induction and mapping, and the use of muscle relaxants precludes identification of the phrenic nerve (PN). Moreover, an anesthesiologist's presence is required during GA for the whole procedure, which may not always be possible. Therefore, we evaluated the feasibility and safety of epicardial VT ablations performed under conscious sedation using dexmedetomidine in our center.