Before the 1980s, management of supraventricular arrhythmias that were refractory to drugs were treated surgically. The procedure involved thoracotomy, cardiotomy, and ligation or cryoablation of the atrioventricular (AV) junction. In the late 1970s, I conceived the idea of trying to replicate the surgical procedure but without the need for open heart surgery. A literature survey described a number of direct techniques used in animals to promote AV block, but I was struck by an abstract published by Beazell et al.