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Magnetic Navigation
An international leader in the evaluation and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, UCSF is one of the few medical centers in California to offer the most advanced technology, called magnetic navigation, to perform radiofrequency catheter ablations — a technique pioneered at UCSF — to treat arrhythmias.
Procedure
Compared to traditional interventional cardiac procedures in which doctors manually navigate instruments, such as catheters and guidewires, the magnetic navigation system is computer-controlled and uses magnets to direct instruments through veins into the heart and coronary arteries. Doctors digitally control movement of the instruments from a control room outside the operating suite using monitors and point-and-click navigation tools and other instruments.
Magnetic navigation has many advantages compared to traditional interventional cardiac procedures. The approach is quicker, more accurate and enables the doctor to move catheters directly on a 3D model of the patient's heart. This allows doctors to correct arrhythmias with increased precision and fewer complications. Magnets can move interventional devices in very precise movements, as little as one millimeter at a time and 360 degrees in any direction. Another advantage is reduced radiation exposure to both the doctor and patient.
Conditions
Magnetic navigation can be used in the treatment of a wide variety of arrhythmias, including:
More Information
Dr. Jeffrey Olgin is the chief of the UCSF Cardiac Electrophysiology and Arrhythmia Service. For more information or to refer a patient, please contact the program at (415) 476-8237.
Photos by Mark Estes
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