Radiofrequency Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation Under Totally Thoracoscope

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common supraventricular arrhythmia, the incidence of which increases with age. The aim of treatment of atrial fibrillation is to restore sinus rhythm and return the heart to atrioventricular synchrony, avoiding the risk of thromboembolism. The fact that pharmacological therapy of AF is at best 50% effective has led to a search for surgical approaches over the last 20 years.

Maze procedure was a classic method to treat AF. However, it is such a complex procedure that very few surgeons have adopted it. A few minimally invasive procedures to create transmural lesions which mimic MAZE procedure have been introduced. One of the mostly favored methods is catheter-based radiofrequency ablation, another one is video assisted epicardial radiofrequency ablation through small thoracic incisions in operating room.

Recently, we invented an epicardial radiofrequency ablation method under totally thoracoscope, which further minimized the surgery trauma and increased the cosmetic effect.