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J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2005;129:215-217
© 2005 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery

Brief Communications

A modified and simplified radiofrequency ablation in patients with mitral valve disease

^a Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Hospital Lainz, Vienna, Austria
^b Department of Cardiology, AKH, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Received for publication March 7, 2004; accepted for publication April 6, 2004.

^* Address for reprints: Roland Fasol, MD, IMC-International Innovative Medical Care Center, Krustettnerstrasse, A-3506 Krems/Hollenburg, Austria (E-mail: rfasol@imc-hospital.com).

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

Dr Fasol

To eliminate atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients with mitral valve disease, the Cox maze procedure has been concomitantly performed. However, because it is an extensive and complex "cut and sew" technique, the procedure is complex to perform. As a consequence, easier to apply ablation methods were introduced that restore sinus rhythm (SR) and atrial contraction (AC) in more than 70% of treated patients.¹ This has resulted in controversial discussions concerning the best possible ablation line patterns.

We have now modified, simplified, and reduced the currently applied complex saline-irrigated, cooled-tip radiofrequency ablation (SICTRA)¹ procedure to a simple, effective, quick, and "easy-to-apply" procedure in 10 consecutive patients (50% were male, mean age 66.3 ± 9.3 years) with excellent results at a 1-year follow-up.

	Patients and methods

 
In 2002, 10 consecutive patients with mitral valve disease and chronic AF (preexisting >6 months) had their mitral valve repaired. Valvular disease was degenerative in 8 patients and ischemic in 2 patients.

Surgery
The details of mitral repair are listed in Table 1. The applied SICTRA set-up technique (Medtronic, Inc, Minneapolis, Minn) was previously published.¹ Our modified and simplified "triangle-like" lesion pattern, isolating the right and left pulmonary veins as well as the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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