Extended endocardial resection for the treatment of ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation.

A total of 40 patients with drug-refractory, life-threatening cardiac rhythm disturbances--ventricular tachycardia in 23 patients and ventricular fibrillation in 17 patients--underwent extended endocardial resection (EER) of scar tissue. Scarring was due to myocardial infarction in 38 patients, to previous congenital heart operation in 1 patient, and to sarcoidosis of the heart in 1. The EER procedure was directed by epicardial and endocardial mapping data whenever possible, and was usually combined with revascularization, aneurysmectomy, or, in 5 patients, mitral valve replacement. Operative mortality was 10%, incident to poor preoperative ventricular function and hemorrhage secondary to previous cardiac surgical procedures. Thirty-three of the 36 survivors (92%) are free of arrhythmia at follow-up periods ranging from 3 to 36 months (mean, 12.5 months); the arrhythmia in the remaining 3 patients is now drug controlled. Thirty-three patients had postoperative electrophysiological studies, and in 30 (91%), the arrhythmia was no longer inducible. The results of surgical treatment for ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation were similar. The results also proved satisfactory whether the EER procedure was directed by visual observation or mapping.