Slovenia's largest hospital has introduced a new breakthrough method of treating heart rhythm problems or arrhythmia using electroporation. The new procedure treats atrial fibrillation, the most common form of persistent abnormal heartbeat.

The Department of Cardiology at the UKC Ljubljana medical centre performed the new treatment for the first time in late October.

The new technique is considered a safer alternative for arrhythmia management as it reduces the likelihood of damage to the organs located around the heart, in particular the nerve that innervates the diaphragm and oesophagus, Andrej Pernat, the head of the department's cardiac electrophysiology division, told reporters on 19 November.

The electroporation method is a non-thermal strategy as short, high-voltage jolts of electricity are used instead of thermal energy to produce changes in the cell membranes. This means that, unlike in other treatments, there is no increase or decrease in the temperature in the heart wall.

Another benefit is that the new method does not take a lot of time to be performed, cardiologist Matevž Jan said, so the hospital will be able to carry out more procedures than what was the initial plan. Waiting times should be reduced as a result of this added bonus. The procedure does not require X-rays either.

The downside, however, is that it is not suitable to treat patients who have a pacemaker or other such devices. And in its current form it cannot be used to treat all types of arrhythmia, said Pernat.

Nevertheless, it is expected to help many arrhythmia patients, since it is primarily meant to treat the most common type of this problem - atrial fibrillation.

Some 20,000 people in Slovenia are affected by this heart rhythm abnormality, and an additional 1,400 are diagnosed with atrial fibrillation every year, but the actual figures are likely even higher, said Zlatko Fras, the medical director of the hospital's Department of Internal Medicine.

UKC Ljubljana is one of the first medical centres to have rolled out the new treatment in the broader region.