The dawn of radiofrequency catheter ablation for cardiac arrhythmias

More than 50 years ago, surgeons had attempted to find less intrusive surgical procedures to interrupt the atrioventricular (AV) conduction (Online Supplement). Later, in the late 70s and the early 80s when antiarrhythmic drug therapy for supraventricular or ventricular tachyarrhythmias failed, the last resort was map-guided antitachycardia surgery.