Stereotaxis GentleTouch™ technology changes the way physicians perform catheter ablation to treat rhythm disorders. Similar to holding a pencil from the writing tip rather than the eraser to write, magnetically navigated Stereotaxis catheters, for the first time, are directed by physicians from the tip of a device rather than mechanically from the far end of the catheter to perform mapping and ablation.

Unlike stiff mechanical catheters that slip on the beating heart wall or, worse, deform the wall, soft magnetic catheters flex with the beating heart to maintain contact at all times while preserving the natural shape of the heart.

These images from a peer-reviewed publication in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology demonstrate what conventional manual catheters in the heart can do to nearby structures such as the esophagus. The image on the left displays the inside of a patient’s esophagus just prior to the insertion of a manual ablation catheter. The image on the right displays the substantial reduction in caliber of the esophagus when a catheter is inserted and manipulated in a normal way in the heart. Such distortion of the heart and nearby tissue can potentially damage delicate tissue.

Because GentleTouch technology does not distort chamber anatomy by deforming the tissue, 3-D anatomic renderings are more accurate and representative of cardiac anatomy in its natural state. In these images, 3-D renderings with Stereotaxis-enabled catheters are co-registered, or merged and integrated, very well with previously obtained 3-D CT images when there were no catheters present in the heart.

The high fidelity of contact observed by GentleTouch catheters results in very consistent lesion formation and stable, predictable catheter performance. In these images, the planned course of a linear lesion represented by the dark red points on the image on the right correlates very accurately with the actual resultant linear lesions seen on the pathology image on the left.

Based upon the results of a benchtop study evaluating magnetic and manual catheters, this image displays the changes in force and tissue pressure applied by different catheters as the heart beats. The dark line demonstrates the relatively small variations in pressure and force during heart beats with magnetic catheters keeping contact optimal to create good ablation lesions while minimizing variation that can result in either poor lesions or highly risky pressure peaks that can perforate the heart. The lighter lines represent two different manual, conventional ablation catheters with different shaft stiffness characteristics.