Paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, also known as supraventricular tachycardia, is a type of cardiac arrhythmia. Patients with this condition may experience a sudden increase in heart rate (mostly over 150 beats per minute) for a period of time (from a few seconds to several hours) and then a sudden change to a normal heart rate. What causes supraventricular tachycardia? There are two general causes of supraventricular tachycardia: First, the heart is born with an extra muscle (probably less than the thickness of a hair) between the atria and the ventricles, which, to use a common analogy, is like a short circuit caused by an extra wire. This extra muscle is called an atrioventricular bypass, or bypass for short. Although congenitally bypassed, the vast majority of people do not have episodes of tachycardia for a very long time, and only a small percentage of people will have an electrocardiogram that reveals evidence of the presence of bypass, medically known as pre-excitation syndrome. The second condition is when two pathways with significantly different properties are created in the area of the atrioventricular node, a key tissue that normally controls the heartbeat, forming a double pathway in the atrioventricular node. This condition tends to be more common after middle age and is mostly associated with acquired aging, but of course there are some congenital factors as well. Whether there is an atrioventricular bypass or an AV node double pathway, patients may not have an episode of supraventricular tachycardia for many years or may only have an episode once in a very long time. This is mainly because the presence of a bypass or a double pathway is only one condition for the onset of an attack, but the onset of an attack requires a trigger – a premature beat! Both atrial and ventricular premature beats can cause episodes of supraventricular tachycardia. The older the patient is, the more likely he or she is to experience premature beats. This is the main reason why many patients experience more frequent episodes of supraventricular tachycardia as they get older. In general, supraventricular tachycardia is a benign condition that does not lead to death, but may affect the patient’s quality of life. In cases of frailty, cardiac insufficiency, or pregnancy, episodes of supraventricular tachycardia may be more troublesome. During an attack, patients can terminate it by holding their breath, stimulating the throat with their fingers causing dry heaving, or jumping. You can also press on the eyeballs or massage the neck, but both of these methods may lead to retinal detachment or even fainting if not done properly and are generally best avoided. If you feel a sudden rapid heartbeat, you should count your own pulse or heartbeat for a minute to see how many times, and also go to a nearby hospital as soon as possible for an electrocardiogram to confirm the diagnosis. If it is confirmed to be a supraventricular tachycardia, your doctor will usually give you an injection of medication to terminate it. Occasionally, it will be terminated with esophageal stimulation. When you have supraventricular tachycardia, medications can only control it temporarily. To eradicate the disease, catheter ablation is necessary. The procedure is performed under local anesthesia, and the patient and the surgeon can talk to each other during the procedure. The surgeon simply punctures the patient’s neck or chest or the base of the thighs several times, places a surgical instrument into the heart, and after examining the bypass or confirming a double pathway, the lesion can be destroyed by distributing radiofrequency or cryo energy. The success rate of a single procedure is usually over 95%, and is close to 100% in highly specialized hospitals. Even in the case of bypasses or double pathways close to the AV node and Hirschsprung’s bundle, most experienced surgeons can ablate safely and successfully, and only a very small number of right-sided episcleral bypasses may fail to ablate, while left-sided episcleral bypasses are more likely to succeed. Of course, individual patients may require two ablations for special reasons, but this is rare. The ablation procedure for supraventricular tachycardia usually takes 1-2 hours, and may be slightly longer depending on the complexity of the lesion. Patients have little pain and recover quickly after the procedure, and can be off the floor in 8 hours and discharged the next day. In terms of cost, general supraventricular tachycardia such as dual atrioventricular node pathway surgery should generally be around 30,000 RMB at present, with slightly increased costs for left atrioventricular bypass radiofrequency surgery, and in special cases to improve the accuracy of the ablation procedure, auxiliary 3D equipment may increase the cost to around 50,000 RMB.