The heartbeat: a precious gift

The heartbeat is a gift we receive and that accompanies us throughout our lives, adapting to our emotions, making them possible and allowing us experiences along the long journey of’ existence. The regular rhythm of our heart, like the metronome that marks time in music between repeated pauses and bars, does not always remain so: we are then talking about arrhythmias. These rhythm disturbances have gained increasing attention due to the progressive increase in incidence and the use of increasingly sensitive diagnostic tools, and importantly, the incidence of arrhythmias is expected to increase in the years to come.

Due to its importance in maintaining the heart rhythm for the proper functioning of our body, arrhythmia therapy has thus become one of the fields of medicine in which in recent decades there has been very important progress with the achievement of significant therapeutic efficacy goals. Given the complexity in the diagnosis and treatment of arrhythmias due to abnormal electrical “currents”, it was the collaboration and multidisciplinary approach of transcatheter arrhythmology and thoracoscopic cardiac surgery that allowed for significantly better results, offering more effective treatment opportunities for those who were previously resigned to their condition. Endo-epicardial treatment of atrial arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation (AF) or inappropriate sinus tachycardias (IST/POTS) or ventricular arrhythmias such as malignant ventricular arrhythmias (ventricular fibrillation/tachycardia), Brugada syndrome and others has led to significant treatment benefits with positive implications in both aspects for all of us many loved ones: improved quality and life expectancy for a journey that is always hoped to be long.