More Evidence for Isolation of the Left Atrial Free Wall During the Convergent Procedure in Atrial Fibrillation

DOI: 10.19102/icrm.2018.091006

ANDY C. KISER, MD^1,2

¹East Carolina Heart Institute at East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA

²Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, Brody School of Medicine, Greenville, NC, USA

KEYWORDS. Atrial fibrillation, convergent, hybrid, surgery.

Dr. Kiser is a consultant for AtriCure, outside the scope of the present work.
Address correspondence to: Andy C. Kiser, MD, 115 Heart Drive, Greenville, NC 27834, USA. Email: kisera16@ecu.edu.

The report by Nagarakanti et al.¹ in this issue of The Journal of Innovations in Cardiac Rhythm Management examines the role of posterior left atrial isolation during hybrid convergent procedure in seven patients. In a similar vein, we previously examined the impact of posterior left atrial wall isolation on the restoration of sinus rhythm.² Our examination of 57 patients with persistent or high-burden paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (27 convergent; 30 endocardial catheter-only) reconfirmed the difficulty in obtaining acute electrical isolation of the posterior LA (51.9% in convergent patients; 23.3% in catheter-only patients) and failed to prove a statistical benefit regarding the treatment of recurrent arrhythmias. We have, however, seen the favorable resolution of atrial fibrillation in our convergent patients who demonstrated elimination of posterior left atrial signal during the procedure.³

The embryological and fibrotic considerations Nagarakanti et al.¹ present and the procedural success of the Cox maze procedure lend convincing support for the isolation of the left atrial free wall in patients with advanced atrial fibrillation. The creation of contiguous, transmural ablation lines that electrically isolate the left atrium and pulmonary veins acutely and chronically is likely to improve procedural outcomes. The Epi/Endo Ablation for Treatment of Persistent Atrial Fibrillation (CONVERGE) trial (NCT01984346), which aims to study the treatment of symptomatic persistent AF patients who are refractory or intolerant to at least one class I or class III antiarrhythmic drug via the use of the EPi-Sense^®-AF Guided Coagulation System with VisiTrax^® (AtriCure, Mason, OH, USA), has almost completed enrollment and is expected to provide additional insight regarding this question.

References

Nagarakanti R, Ung K, Strahan H. Critical role of the posterior left atrium in the perpetuation of persistent atrial fibrillation and the hybrid ablation approach for persistent atrial fibrillation management: a single-center outcomes study. J Innov Cardiac Rhythm Manage. 2018;9(10):3372–3381. [CrossRef]
Kumar P, Bamimore AM, Schwartz JD, et al. Challenges and outcomes of posterior wall isolation for ablation of atrial fibrillation. J Am Heart Assoc. 2016;5(9). pii: e003885. [CrossRef] [PubMed]
Gehi AK, Mounsey P, Pursell I, et al. Hybrid epicardial-endocardial ablation using a pericardioscopic technique for the treatment of atrial fibrillation. Heart Rhythm. 2013;10(1):22–28. [CrossRef] [PubMed]