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.
Prophylactic Ablation to Prevent POAF! Does it work?
Dr. Charles Willekes and I discuss his recently reported randomized control study evaluating the safety and effectiveness of prophylactic bilateral pulmonary vein isolation in preventing post-operative atrial fibrillation. We also discuss our recent prophylactic posterior wall isolation technique to prevent POAF. Lots of new and intriguing data on this episode !!!
Robotic Enhanced Convergent Approach & #DEI STS 2023 Presidential Address
Ali Syed is a brave medical student who not only is at the forefront of Hybrid Ablation approaches as a member of the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Robotic Enhanced Convergent Plus team but also a #DEI advocate who shares his insight on the STS 2023 Presidential address.
A Hybrid Team Approach for Atrial Fibrillation
In this episode I describe our recent study revealing our results of a Hybrid team approach for the treatment of atrial fibrillation. I cover our hybrid technique, why we separate each stage, which lesions we perform and how our approach has changed over time. Most importantly I share how effective and safe this team approach has been in now nearly 1,000 patients!
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.
Medicare Cuts!!! (Again???)
Dr. Brett Gidney is a cardiac electrophysiologist leading the charge to reform Medicare payments to EPs. He practices throughout the central coast of California from Thousand Oaks up to Santa Maria, including mainly at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, CA. He is board certified in clinical cardiac electrophysiology focusing on complex cardiac arrhythmia management and clinical faculty at UCLA. We discuss the drastic proposed Medicare cuts that are set to devalue AF ablation once again!!!
CAST-AF 2022!
Dr. Bradley Knight, Professor of Cardiology at Northwestern University & Co-Director of the upcoming CAST-AF 2022 meeting being held on August 26-27th in Chicago, and I review the exciting topics to be presented at the meeting including PFA, the DECAAF Study, Left atrial appendage occlusion devices, the CONVERGE hybrid approach and then finish with a great conversation about the current state of EP resident/fellow training at Northwestern University.
Dementia and Atrial Fibrillation
Dr. Jared Bunch is a world renown Electrophysiologist and Clinical researcher. His latest work highlights the devastating relationship between Atrial fibrillation and Dementia. Find out more about how young people with Afib are at increased risk of dementia and much more on this episode of the All Things Afib Podcast!
The Converge IDE Trial
Dr. Christian Shults Cardiothoracic Surgeon and co-author of the Converge IDE trial shares his experience with the Convergent Hybrid Procedure and the results of the Converge IDE trial.
Stand-Alone Atrial Fibrillation
Dr. Niv Ad discuss the current state of surgical management of Stand-Alone Atrial Fibrillation.
Prophylactic Left Atrial Appendage Management - The ATLAS Study
Dr. Marc Gerdisch discusses the results of the ATLAS Study designed to answer the question of whether prophylactic left atrial appendage management can reduce Afib associated post-operative stroke.