A new heart surgery method developed in Korea has appeared on the cover of a prominent international journal.

The Seoul National University Hospital said Monday the study of “Arrhythmia prevention new cardiac surgery” by Professor Lee Jung-ryul of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery was published as the first cover paper of the American Thoracic Society “The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.”

Professor Lee has also devised a cardiac surgery that prevents arrhythmia with proven usefulness and safety for 18 years.

Patients with cardiac malformations with only one ventricle should undergo Fontan procedure to relieve hypoxia and maintain motor performance. However, this surgery has the side effect of frequent arrhythmias with an irregular heartbeat.

The professor conducted a new Fontan operation to prevent arrhythmia in 27 single-heart patients. After 18 years of follow-up, there was no death due to arrhythmia and no complications related to surgery. Two patients with fast heart rate tachycardia improved on drug treatment, the study said.

Recently, the prevalence of arrhythmia has increased rapidly, but the treatment for arrhythmia prevention is limited to clinical applications because of its lack of evidence, the hospital said.

The reason the study is especially interesting was that it was not a treatment for arrhythmia but a surgery that could prevent arrhythmia as well as simple treatment by heart surgery, it added.

“Once selected as such a prestigious international journal, the world's medical staff will perform a new technique surgery,” Professor Lee said. “The paradigm will change in the future as a new surgical procedure that takes into accounts the arrhythmia prevention in heart surgery.”

Professor Lee Jung-ryul’s study of “Arrhythmia prevention new cardiac surgery” decorates the cover page of “The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.”

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