Magnetic navigation systems

Cardiovascular conditions such as coronary artery disease and heart failure continue to remain the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Patients can present with various cardiac arrhythmias in the absence or presence of structural heart disease. Cardiac arrhythmias can affect all age groups ranging from neonates to elderly population. Catheter-based mapping and ablation procedures have become standard of care for the treatment of both supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias. Manual approach for catheter-based treatment requires standing next to patient table with the need to wear heavy lead aprons and exposure to harmful scatter radiation from fluoroscopy systems. Furthermore, downstream orthopedic and carcinogenic side effects on operator health are well known in the interventional cardiology world. As such, magnetic navigation systems were developed to circumvent these issues and to provide flexible, multidirectional, and precise catheter movement in a complex human environment. This chapter elaborates on historical perspectives of the use of remote magnetic navigation (RMN) system in the treatment of cardiac disorders followed by basic concepts of RMN and long-term outcomes in the treatment of various arrhythmia disorders.