Atrial fibrillation – first patient treated in Sweden using robotic technology
Arrhythmia Center Stockholm has today performed the first treatment of atrial fibrillation in the new facility at Södersjukhuset in Stockholm. Arrhythmia Center Stockholm is a private initiative that has been started as part of the unique collaboration between Global Health Partner and Södersjukhuset. This venture increases the opportunities for meeting a growing need for care from a patient group that today greatly suffers from long waiting times within hospital care.
Arrhythmia Center Stockholm is a new centre for the treatment of patients with disturbances of the heart’s rhythm, so-called arrhythmias. The facility is located at Södersjukhuset and is run in close collaboration with Södersjukhuset’s own cardiological department. “We at Södersjukhuset are pleased about this opportunity
for collaboration. We look forward to working together both with regard to patients and research and development,” says Anna Nergårdh, Head of the Cardiology Department at Södersjukhuset.
This is the first clinic in Sweden to use magnetic navigation, Stereotaxis, to perform so-called ablation treatment. The technology gives greater precision during the intervention, less risk of complications and a reduction in x-ray exposure. “The robotic technology is a big step forward in the treatment of patients with atrial fibrillation,” says the medically responsible Associate Professor, Anders Englund,
Hospital heart care in Sweden is today grappling with very long waiting times, a lack of specialist competence and equipment for the treatment of, amongst other things, atrial fibrillation. There is a great need for hospital care among patients with atrial fibrillation and several serious complications such as stroke and heart failure may set in.
The new clinic will be able to perform 400 treatments per year and will take both publicly and privately financed patients from all of Sweden. Today a total of 2,000 treatments per year are performed in the country.
”We have managed to engage some of Sweden’s most experienced arrhythmia doctors and have great hopes that we will be able to contribute to the development of arrhythmia care,” says Per Båtelson, Global Health Partner’s CEO.
For further information on this venture, see www.arytmicenter.se.
Ablations have been performed for nearly 20 years now on patients with congenital arrhythmia disturbances due to one or more accessory pathways. The method has been developed over the past five years and today is also an established treatment method for patients with atrial fibrillation. In the recently published national guidelines for hospital heart care, ablation of atrial fibrillation is given high priority, which means that it is estimated that the demand for this intervention will increase rapidly over the coming years.
6 May 2009
Gothenburg
Per Båtelson, CEO Global Health Partner