Stereotaxis Magnetic Treatment for Atrial Fibrillation and More

Your heart: It’s a powerful muscle that keeps you moving each day. But it’s also surprisingly fragile and its thin walls can be damaged by the slightest touch.
The Stereotaxis Magnetic Treatment System combines precise, computer-aided magnetic guidance with gentle catheter contact, enabling our doctors to navigate and treat the heart without the risks associated with manual and mechanical devices.

Wheaton Franciscan - Wisconsin Heart Hospital Campus is the only hospital in Wisconsin to offer this sophisticated system to treat arrhythmia

How Stereotaxis works
Stereotaxis technology uses computer-controlled magnets--positioned outside the body-to steer catheters and guidewires through the delicate cardiovascular system to the area of the heart where the electrical impulses are “misfiring.” The system delivers radiofrequency signals to the area.

Wisconsin Heart Hospital uses this groundbreaking system to treat a number of heart irregularities, including arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter, as well as supraventricular tachycardias.

Redefining heart care precision and outcomes
Stereotaxis offers innovation in healing by providing gentle access to remote areas of the heart that have been difficult to reach before. This technology opens up a new avenue of care for some patients who would otherwise be referred to highly invasive coronary artery bypass surgery. And there is now potential to help patients suffering from atrial fibrillation or other arrhythmias who would have had to rely on drug therapy alone, which may only partly address their symptoms. Other benefits of the system include: 

• Shorter procedures and faster recovery time 
• Less exposure to X-ray radiation and dyes 
• Reduced risk of serious complications from perforation of blood vessels or heart tissue 
• Reduced likelihood of referral to highly invasive open-heart surgery

Stereotaxis FAQs
Why is Stereotaxis a better treatment option?
This new technology offers a safer, more effective and less-invasive alternative to conventional treatments such as open heart surgery or invasive coronary artery bypass surgery. Stereotaxis also offers potential for curative interventional treatments to patients suffering from atrial fibrillation or other arrhythmias who would otherwise have to rely on non-curative drug therapy that may only partly address their symptoms.

What kind of cardiac procedures can Stereotaxis perform?
Stereotaxis technology is designed to help with a variety of cardiac procedures including atrial fibrillation ablation, cardiac resynchronization therapy and treatment of multi-vessel and other complex coronary artery disease, including chronic total occlusions, or CTOs, that comprise chronically and fully blocked coronary arteries. In many cases, these treatments would have required conventional methods that are so complex that they could be performed by only a small number of physicians and hospitals.

For more information

• Find a cardiac electrophysiologist who practices at Wheaton Franciscan – Wisconsin Heart Hospital Campus. 
• Research heart rhythm disorders in our Health Library.
• For more information about Stereotaxis technology and the heart rhythm specialists who use it, please call (414) 874-4555.