A team of Turkish doctors came up with an innovative method to treat a middle-aged patient with an irregular heartbeat.
The patient, Ercüment Taşkıran, 41, dealt with frequent feelings of exhaustion, faintness and over-sweating for over a decade as a result of his arrhythmia. One day, he was taken to the Koşuyolu Cardiology Hospital in Istanbul after passing out in his home.
At the hospital, Taşkıran was diagnosed with atrial tachycardia, a condition that, while not life-threatening by itself, can develop into heart failure if left untreated.
Professor Abdülkadir Uslu and his team employed a method commonly used to treat arrhythmia known as cardiac ablation. However, what made this particular case different was that the team used three-dimensional mapping before carrying out both hot and cold ablations to eliminate faulty electric pathways in the heart.
After Taşkıran made a full recovery, the treatment was presented to the scientific world in an article recently published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Electrocardiology. Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA) on the planning of the treatment and operation, Uslu said Taşkıran's case was very rare and that was why they decided to apply the innovative method. "Once the procedure was complete, our patient's (heart) rhythm was completely normal. Afterward, he didn't experience any arrhythmia," Uslu said. "Our patient had previously developed heart failure due to arrhythmia. After his rhythm normalized, we saw that his heart functions also returned to normal," he added, mentioning that Taşkıran is now "very happy." "We're continuing with our follow-ups."
Taşkıran said that for a decade, he felt as though his heart was underperforming. As a consequence, my life quality was very low, he said. He expressed hope that the method used to treat him would improve the health of other patients suffering from arrhythmia.
