Atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia. Electrophysiologic characteristics, therapeutic interventions, and specific reference to anatomic boundary of the reentrant circuit.

Over the past several decades there has been enormous progress in the understanding of many electrophysiologic characteristics of the AVNRT circuit. Although a great number of questions have been resolved, several pertinent issues require further investigation. Medical treatment remains the most widely used therapeutic intervention for acute or short-term management of patients with recurrent AVNRT. However, nonpharmacologic approaches, particularly transcatheter modification of the AV node, have increasingly become popular for long-term management. Radiofrequency energy has been safe and effective for transcatheter ablative techniques. It seems highly likely that in the next several years, selective transcatheter ablation of the AV nodal (slow or fast) pathway, by providing permanent cure, will become the modality of choice in symptomatic patients with AVNRT.