OAC or not after surgical LAAO?
I try to address an often asked question about whether I continue or stop OAC after successful surgical LAAO in patients with pre-existing atrial fibrillation. This episode provides a deep dive into the LAAOS 3 trial and the most recent 2023 ACC/AHA guidelines.
LAALA Study - How effective is an AtriClip?
In this episode I describe our recent LAALA study - Left atrial appendage ligation using the AtriClip Device: Single-Center study of device safety and efficacy. The basic question we were trying to answer was does the AtriClip work? In order to answer this question we asked 100 patients to come back to Saint Helena Hospital to have a TEE performed at least 1 year after their AtriClip had been placed. Listen to the episode to learn how well the AtriClip performed!
Robotic Maze Surgery
Dr. Vinay Badhwar, Gordon F. Murray Professor and Chair, Department of Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery at West Virginia University, shares with us the remarkable results of the Robotic-assisted Cryothermic Cox Maze for Persistent Atrial Fibrillation and gives us a sneak peak of possible upcoming changes to the new surgical ablation and left atrial appendage management guidelines.