Safety of RF
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Dear Professors
I have a question about the safety of RF ( both pulsed and thermal ) in patient with coronary stent , and patient with prosthetic valve , please -
Hello Dr. Raad,
The radiofrequency procedures, either conventional or pulsed, could interfere with electronic devices as pacemakers and SCS. In these cases the devices should be turned off before the procedures and, if possible, we should use bipolar techniques. Patients with coronary stents and valves have no problem with RF procedures.
Fabricio Assis
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Agree 100% with Fabricio. If doing RF with pacemaker and don’t have bipolar be sure and place dispersal electrode no where near pacemaker and have magnet in case need to activate pacemaker in fixed mode. If patient pacemaker dependent good idea to have cardiologist in attendance . John Nelson MD FIPP
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a safe thing to do is call the cardiologist and get clearance to turn it off. they typically will ask for you to have the device rep there to interrogate it and make sure it is operating normally after the procedure. I just did one today – pulsed RF of suprascapular nerve in patient with AICD. i placed the grounding pad far away from where the pacemaker was at. we taped a magnet to the AICD for the procedure (which deactivates it – manufacturer dependent?) and removed it afterwards.
the patient has a device at home to interrogate the ICD afterwards to make sure it is functioning properly. A recent publication by SIS is attached here.
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