Why the study?
Does a hybrid thoracoscopic epicardial and endocardial catheter-based ablation improve freedom from atrial arrhythmias compared to catheter ablation alone in patients with persistent or long-standing persistent atrial fibrillation?
Cohort (n=45)
No
Does a hybrid thoracoscopic epicardial and endocardial catheter-based ablation improve freedom from atrial arrhythmias compared to catheter ablation alone in patients with persistent or long-standing persistent atrial fibrillation?
A hybrid epicardial and endocardial ablation approach for persistent atrial fibrillation significantly improves freedom from atrial arrhythmias compared to catheter ablation alone.
Atrial fibrillation is a challenging pathologic process. There continues to be a great need for the development of a reproducible, durable cure when medical management has failed. An effective, minimally invasive, sternal-sparing intervention without the need for cardiopulmonary bypass is a promising treatment approach. In this article, we describe a hybrid technique being refined at our center that combines a thoracoscopic epicardial surgical approach with an endocardial catheter-based procedure. We also discuss our results and review the literature describing this unique treatment approach.
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Beller et al. (2016) conducted a cohort in Atrial fibrillation (n=45). Hybrid thoracoscopic epicardial and endocardial catheter ablation vs. Sequential catheter ablations was evaluated on Freedom from atrial arrhythmias off antiarrhythmic drugs (p=0.04).
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