TY - JOUR
T1 - Surgical and hybrid atrial fibrillation ablation procedures
AU - Pison, Laurent
AU - Dagres, Nikolaos
AU - Lewalter, Thorsten
AU - Proclemer, Alessandro
AU - Marinskis, Germanas
AU - Blomstrom-Lundqvist, Carina
PY - 2012/7
Y1 - 2012/7
N2 - The purpose of this EP Wire is to survey clinical practice in this rapidly evolving field as the variety of surgical techniques and the heterogeneity of treated patients make the comparison of results and outcomes challenging. Twenty-four European centres, all members of the EHRA EP research network, responded to this survey and completed the questions. Of the participating centres, 11 (46) performed (irrespective of the technique) stand-alone surgical atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation in 2011. Seven hospitals (64) performed totally thoracoscopic AF ablation procedures off-pump (in 20100 of their cases). The most commonly used lesion set was only pulmonary vein isolation in five hospitals (46). Eight centres (73) performed validation of the surgical lesion set at the time of intervention. The most important indication for performing stand-alone, totally thoracoscopic surgical AF ablation in seven participating hospitals was failed catheter ablation. According to their definition of success, participating centres reported their success rate to be 10100 for paroxysmal AF and 095 for (longstanding) persistent AF. The most frequently encountered complications during stand-alone, surgical AF ablation were pneumothorax and haemothorax in up to 10 of the cases. This EP Wire survey shows a wide variation not only in indications for stand-alone, surgical AF ablation, but also in surgical techniques, lesion sets, follow-up, and outcome.
AB - The purpose of this EP Wire is to survey clinical practice in this rapidly evolving field as the variety of surgical techniques and the heterogeneity of treated patients make the comparison of results and outcomes challenging. Twenty-four European centres, all members of the EHRA EP research network, responded to this survey and completed the questions. Of the participating centres, 11 (46) performed (irrespective of the technique) stand-alone surgical atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation in 2011. Seven hospitals (64) performed totally thoracoscopic AF ablation procedures off-pump (in 20100 of their cases). The most commonly used lesion set was only pulmonary vein isolation in five hospitals (46). Eight centres (73) performed validation of the surgical lesion set at the time of intervention. The most important indication for performing stand-alone, totally thoracoscopic surgical AF ablation in seven participating hospitals was failed catheter ablation. According to their definition of success, participating centres reported their success rate to be 10100 for paroxysmal AF and 095 for (longstanding) persistent AF. The most frequently encountered complications during stand-alone, surgical AF ablation were pneumothorax and haemothorax in up to 10 of the cases. This EP Wire survey shows a wide variation not only in indications for stand-alone, surgical AF ablation, but also in surgical techniques, lesion sets, follow-up, and outcome.
KW - EP Wire
KW - Surgical
KW - Hybrid
KW - Atrial fibrillation
KW - Ablation
U2 - 10.1093/europace/eus207
DO - 10.1093/europace/eus207
M3 - Article
C2 - 22719075
SN - 1099-5129
VL - 14
SP - 939
EP - 941
JO - EP Europace
JF - EP Europace
IS - 7
ER -