The authors analyse the outcomes of surgical management in 400 patients with the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome who had been operated on in the All-Union Centre for Surgical treatment of Severe Cardiac Arrhythmias and Electrocardiostimulation. Unique surgical procedures were applied, which made it possible to perform cryodestruction of accessory atrioventricular pathways, without resorting to an extracorporeal circulation and without opening heart cavities. The procedures are demonstrated to be not inferior to operations using extracorporeal circulation. It is concluded that patients with the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome should be operated on under natural circulation, in particular if they have a concomitant abnormality as a risk factor for employing extracorporeal circulation.
Adult Aged