Alcohol septal ablation for hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy.

Until the early 1990s, surgical myectomy was the standard treatment for patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy and drug refractory symptoms. In the past few years, the potential therapeutic options have dramatically changed with the introduction of DDD-pacemaker implantation and percutaneous transluminal septal myocardial ablation by alcohol-induced septal branch occlusion. The circumscribed therapeutic myocardial infarction results in widening of the left ventricular outflow tract with consecutive gradient reduction. Follow-up studies show impressive clinical improvement, as well as further gradient reduction as a result of left ventricular remodeling. In this article, we provide an updated review of the latest results of percutaneous transluminal septal myocardial ablation.