EN
Heart rhythm disorders are the part of cardiology where much depends on skill of hand. Choosing tablets is one thing; guiding a catheter into the heart, finding the millimetre-sized patch that sets off the disturbance and switching it off is another. Professor Christopher Reithmann has been doing exactly this for more than thirty years.
Who he is and where he practises
Prof. Dr med. Christopher Reithmann is a cardiologist and chief physician of the clinic for cardiology and internal intensive care medicine at Helios Klinikum München West. He studied medicine at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and has headed the clinic since 2009.
Since 2025 Prof. Dr Sebastian Kufner has joined the clinic’s leadership, taking on the organisational management and interventional cardiology, while Professor Reithmann as chief physician has concentrated on his own field — interventional electrophysiology and the treatment of arrhythmias. In plain terms, he handed over the administrative side in order to spend more time in the electrophysiology laboratory.
What he does specifically
His key method is catheter ablation. A thin catheter is guided to the heart through a blood vessel, three-dimensional mapping builds an electrical “map” of the heart chamber, and the focus responsible for the disturbed rhythm is located. That spot is then treated precisely — with heat or with cold. The chest is not opened. By the hospital’s figures, more than 700 such procedures are carried out here a year.
Professor Reithmann works both with relatively simple rhythm disorders and with complex ones, including ventricular arrhythmias arising in an already damaged heart. A field of its own is the implantation of pacemakers and defibrillators, when the heart needs permanent protection against failure.
Besides arrhythmia work he commands the whole range of invasive cardiology: diagnostic coronary angiography and stenting of the heart vessels, myocardial biopsy, pericardial puncture, and closure of the left atrial appendage — a procedure considered in atrial fibrillation when taking blood thinners permanently is not possible.
How we arrange an appointment
We send the hospital your discharge letter, ECGs and Holter monitor recordings translated into German — from these the doctor can see in advance what kind of arrhythmia is involved and plan the extent of the assessment. Then comes agreeing a date, an interpreter throughout, and help with the visa and accommodation. The hospital invoices you directly.
This material is for information only and does not replace a consultation with a doctor. Seeing a particular specialist in person depends on their schedule and the hospital’s workload. Whether treatment is possible, what it will involve and what it will achieve can be determined only after an examination in person.