Long-term outcome after thoracoscopic cardiac sympathectomy for refractory ventricular tachyarrhythmia storm.

A man in his 40s presented with an acute anterior wall myocardial infarction (MI) 6 hours after symptom onset to a non-percutaneous intervention enabled hospital and underwent thrombolysis with tenecteplase. His chest pain resolved post-thrombolysis although ST segment resolution was less than 50%. He had an episode of sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) 48 hours after MI which was successfully cardioverted with 150 J biphasic shock. A month later he presented with a ventricular tachycardia storm that was refractory to pharmacological management. He underwent radiofrequency ablation of the VT using three-dimensional mapping. Although the patient remained free of VT/ventricular fibrillation (VF) for 48 hours, he had an episode of VF subsequently. A decision for bilateral surgical video assisted thoracoscopic cardiac sympathetic denervation was taken and the patient remained free of ventricular tachyarrhythmias after the procedure until.