Collateral Damage: A Patient, a New Procedure and the Learning Curve

“I can’t think of a procedure in the history of medicine where we’ve gone to patients and say this is very expensive, it’s very dangerous, we have no idea what good it does you, but we’d like to do it, and if we can talk you into a trial we’re just going to see how many of you have serious adverse events.”

Read All About It!

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The lead article in the January, 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, (Vol. 303, No.4) is about a study that found Afibbers would do much better to undergo catheter ablations instead of taking pills.

Usually you’d have to be a subscriber, or be willing to cough up $15 to read an article in JAMA. But the full text of Comparison of Antiarrhythmic Drug Therapy and Radiofrequency Catheter Ablation in Patients With Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation: A Randomized Controlled Trial, can be had on their site for free. It comes with a video presentation and a link to a patient information page. It’s all courtesy  of Biosense Webster, one of the Johnson & Johnson family of companies, the one that manufactures the NaviStar ThermoCool Irrigated Tip Catheter©, the device vindicated in the study they sponsored…

Funding/Support: This study was funded by Biosense Webster,who provided the catheters used.

Financial Disclosures: Dr Wilber reported receiving grants fromBiosense Webster, Boston Scientific, Medtronic, and St JudeMedical; consulting fees from Biosense Webster, Medtronic, andSanofi-Aventis; honoraria from Biosense Webster, Boston Scientific,Medtronic, and St Jude Medical; and royalties from Blackwell/Futura.Dr Pappone reported receiving grants and consulting fees fromSt Jude Medical and Johnson & Johnson, and honorarium fromBiosense Webster. Dr Neuzil reported receiving grants from BiosenseWebster, Cardiofocus, Cyrocath Technologies, Hansen Medical,NIH BARI 2D, and St Jude Medical; consulting fees from Stereotaxis;and honorarium from Biosense Webster. Dr De Paola reported receivinga grant from Bristol-Myers Squibb. Dr Marchlinski reported receivinggrants and honoraria from Biosense Webster, Boston Scientific,and St Jude Medical; consulting fees from Biosense Webster,Boston Scientific, GE Healthcare, Medtronic, and St Jude Medical;and speakers’ bureau fees from Biosense Webster. Dr Natale reportedreceiving grants from Biosense Webster and St Jude Medical,and speakers’ bureau fees from Biosense Webster, Boston Scientific,Medtronic, and St Jude Medical. Dr Macle reported receivingconsulting fees and honorarium from Biosense Webster. Dr Daoudreported receiving consulting fees from BARD and Biosense Webster,and honorarium from Biosense Webster. Dr Calkins reported receivingconsulting fees from Ablation Frontiers, Atricure, BARD, BiosenseWebster, Boston Scientific, CryoCor, CyberHeart, Medtronic,ProRhythm, Sanofi-Aventis, and TASER International; a grantand honorarium from Biosense Webster; speakers’ bureau feesfrom Atricure, BARD, Biosense Webster, Boston Scientific, Medtronic,and Reliant; and fellowship fees from BARD, Boston Scientific,and Medtronic. Dr Hall reported receiving consulting fees fromBiosense Webster. Dr Reddy reported receiving grants from Atritech,Boston Scientific, Biosense Webster, Cardiofocus, CryoCath Technologies,Endosense Hansen Medical, St Jude Medical, and Stereotaxis;consulting fees from Biosense Webster and St Jude Medical; andhonoraria from Boston Scientific, Biosense Webster, Medtronic,and St Jude Medical. Dr Augello reported receiving honorariafrom BARD, Biosense Webster, and St Jude Medical. Dr Reynoldsreported receiving consulting fees from Biosense Webster, CardiomePharma Corp, and Sanofi-Aventis. Mr Vinekar and Ms Liu are employeesof Biosense Webster. Drs S. Berry and D. Berry reported receivingconsulting fees from Biosense Webster, Veridex LLC, Boston Scientific,Endologix, R.R. Bard, W.L. Gore, Medtronic, Bristol-Myers Squibb,Pfizer, and Teva Pharmaceuticals.