Thoracoscopic Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion

A Semi-Automated Algorithm for Segmentation of the Left Atrial Appendage Landing Zone: Application in Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion Procedures

Background: Mechanical occlusion of the Left atrial appendage (LAA) using a purpose-built device has emerged as an effective prophylactic treatment in patients with atrial fibrillation at risk of stroke and a contraindication for anticoagulation. A crucial step in procedural planning is the choice of the device size. This is currently based on the manual analysis of the “Device Landing Zone” fr...

Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion

Left atrial appendage (LAA) occlusion is a treatment strategy to prevent blood clot formation in atrial appendage. Although, LAA occlusion usually was done by catheter-based techniques, especially percutaneous trans-luminal mitral commissurotomy (PTMC), it can be done during closed and open mitral valve commissurotomy (CMVC, OMVC) and mitral valve replacement (MVR) too. Nowadays, PTMC is perfor...

Left atrial appendage occlusion procedures

Clipping to sinus rhythm: cardioversion of atrial fibrillation by a thoracoscopic left atrial appendage occlusion.

Clipping to sinus rhythm: cardioversion of atrial fibrillation by a thoracoscopic left atrial appendage occlusion Vedran Velagić*, Gian-Battista Chierchia, and Mark La Meir Centre for Cardiovascular Diseases, Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 101 Laarbeeklaan, 1090 Brussels, Belgium * Corresponding author. Tel: +385 91 7929284; fax: +322 477 6851, E-mail address: vvel...

Left atrial appendage occlusion debate revisited.

756 T he left atrial appendage (LAA) has been deemed by some to be our " most lethal attachment, " and the concept of excluding it from systemic circulation has been thought to hold great promise. This concept has been around since 1948, when John Madden 1 proclaimed it a plausible therapy for recurrent emboli in atrial fibrillation. Despite this, higher-quality evidence in the field is only ju...