Purpose: Improvements in enabling technology have facilitated minimal access techniques to the surgical ablation of atrial fibrillation. A variety of lesion sets (usually targeting only the left atrium) have been used in attempts to ablate atrial fibrillation. We describe a new epicardial approach to apply a set of left atrial lesions, which are electrophysiologically equivalent to all the left atrial lesions of the Cox maze III while using minimal access techniques.
Description: Using minimal access techniques, we have isolated the pulmonary veins and made connecting lesions on the dome of the left atrium to create a set of lesions electrophysiologically equivalent to all the left atrial lesions of the Cox maze III. Intraoperative electrophysiological evaluation is used to insure complete isolation across each lesion line.
Evaluation: Using these minimal access procedures, we have obtained a complete block across all lesion lines in all patients.
Conclusions: These techniques have made it possible to perform the full Cox maze III left atrial lesion set with minimal access techniques.