Ethanol Septal Reduction
There are 2 methods of reducing the left ventricular outflow tract obstruction in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. They are: surgical resection and ethanol injection into the septal branch of the left anterior descending coronary artery. Nagueh and colleagues compared the benefit of surgery in 41 patients to the benefit of ethanol injection into the septal branch of the left anterior descending coronary artery in 41 patients.

The investigators found that the clinical results were similar in the 2 groups of patients at 1 year of observation. In addition, both treatment options have caveats: the inexperienced operator must guard against the creation of heart block when ethanol injection is used and aortic regurgitation when surgical treatment is used.