CryoTherapy helped this active teen get back on the basketball court

There are no patient stereotypes when it comes to arrhythmia. Anyone can be affected, often without having any previous symptoms. Such was the case for Dennis Lueken, a 17-year-old high school basketball player in Illinois.

The first time his condition appeared was after a game when his heart began to race dangerously out of control. Thankfully, it soon stabilized. Since there was no history of heart disease in Dennis's family, doctors were puzzled and decided to wait. Two weeks later, it happened again, and Dennis was referred to specialists who diagnosed Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT), a type of arrhythmia.

The standard treatment for this condition, as with most arrhythmias, is to use heat to ablate the defective pathways in the heart that cause an abnormal electrical impulse. Because of the position of the problem – supraventricular, meaning in the upper chambers of the heart – doctors were concerned about a complication that happens in about 1% of cases. The complication is that the heat-based therapy may burn more tissue than the physician may have intended. When this happens, the patient must have a permanent pacemaker implanted for life.

To reduce the risk of this complication, Dennis's doctors decided to turn to CryoTherapy and use a technique known as CryoAblation. Ablation is a surgical term for the destruction of diseased or defective tissue.

The decision was a good one. Dennis's arrhythmia was treated successfully with CryoAblation. His recovery was quick – as was his return to the team. Today, he is a basketball-playing college student who leads a normal, dynamic life.