MORRISVILLE, N.C., Sept. 21 /PRNewswire/ — During the recent
Atrial Fibrillation Session of the Techno College at the European
Association of Cardiac Thoracic Surgeons in Geneva, Switzerland,
Professor Borut Gersak, Head of Cardiac Surgery from University
Medical Center in Ljubljana, Slovenia challenged his audience of
more than 1,000 medical professionals to think differently about
existing atrial fibrillation surgical approaches. He called
for the cardiac surgeons in attendance to encourage cardiologists
to refer atrial fibrillation patients for stand-alone,
interdisciplinary hybrid procedures that are significantly less
invasive, yet allow for a more complete treatment of the condition
and improved results.
Professor Gersak has been instrumental in developing the
Convergent Procedure, a completely closed-chest surgical technique
that is designed to treat all types of atrial fibrillation, the
most common cardiac arrhythmia (abnormal heartbeat) affecting
millions of people worldwide.
The Convergent Procedure is a combined epicardial-endocardial
ablation approach. A cardiac surgeon initially creates a
comprehensive bi-atrial lesion pattern through a 2.5cm abdominal
incision, without chest incisions, ports, or lung deflation. The
surgeon utilizes the nContact coagulation device during epicardial
ablation to create continuous, linear lesions on a beating heart.
Within the same setting, an electrophysiologist will then perform
endocardial ablation to complete the lesion pattern and utilize
mapping and diagnostics to ensure procedure endpoints are achieved.
“Cardiologists don’t accept surgical ablation procedures as
‘minimally invasive’ if they require multiple thoracic incisions
and lung deflation. As such, procedures for treating atrial
fibrillation must eliminate invasive chest incisions while allowing
surgeons to have direct visualization of the heart and their
instruments through endoscopes,” stated Professor Gers
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