Change of Paradigm in the Management of Patients with Accessory Pathways over the Last Forty Years: Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome as an Electrophysiological Marvel at Risk of Extinction

摘要

According to several reports, the Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome is disappearing, as catheter ablation has become an established therapy to cure it. Clearly, this will not completely occur because nature continues to provide us with new instances of this condition, mostly treated in the earlier years of the patient's life. This deprives nonpediatric electrophysiologists of the skills to recognize this pathologic condition when encountered in an older individual and of the awe that such clinical marvel should induce. There is no doubt that encounters with WPW syndrome are becoming rarer and rarer, and the skills to correctly diagnose and manage adult patients are vanishing especially for the new generations of trainees.