The Surgery Panel at the 2015 Get in Rhythm, Stay in Rhythm National Atrial Fibrillation Patient Conference included Ralph J. Damiano, Jr., MD speaking about surgical ablation and Jonathan M. Philpott, MD speaking about hybrid ablation and the Heart Team approach. James R. Edgerton, MD, FACS, FACC, FHRS was unable to attend so his interactive …
Read More
In this video interview, Dr. Andy Kiser discusses the hybrid ablation (also called the hybrid procedure) for atrial fibrillation to tailor treatment for individual patients. This hybrid approach combines a surgical ablation procedure and a catheter ablation in the same setting, and is done by a team that consists of both a surgeon and an …
Read More
Dr. John Mandrola, a cardiac electrophysiologist in Louisville, Kentucky, who blogs at Dr. John M, live-blogged the 2012 Boston Atrial Fibrillation Symposium. He has given us permission to reprint his blog posts for the afib community. You will find them here: Recap of Boston Atrial Fibrillation Symposium 2012 – Guest Posts by Dr. John Mandrola …
Read More
StopAfib.org interviews Dr. Hugh Calkins, electrophysiologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital. In this video, Dr. Calkins discussed the current effort to update and rewrite the HRS/EHRA/ECAS Expert Consensus Statement on Catheter and Surgical Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation, which was published in 2007. The goal is to present the new guidelines at the Boston Atrial Fibrillation Symposium …
Read More
StopAfib.org has announced the Top Ten Atrial Fibrillation Videos of 2011. Afib stroke prevention again topped the list, with stories about warfarin (Coumadin), alternatives such as dabigatran (Pradaxa) and rivaroxaban (Xarelto), and the CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scoring tools for determining whether anticoagulants are needed. Other popular topics included sleep apnea, catheter ablation, and maze procedures (surgical …
Read More
In this video interview, Dr. Hugh Calkins, electrophysiologist at Johns Hopkins, talks about the effort underway to rewrite the HRS/EHRA/ECAS Expert Consensus Statement on Catheter and Surgical Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation. The new global guidelines are expected in January of 2012. Watch the video at: Johns Hopkins Electrophysiologist, Dr. Hugh Calkins, On Updating the Atrial …
Read More
Hybrid ablation is an emerging treatment for patients with persistent and longstanding persistent atrial fibrillation. It is a dual approach, in which an electrophysiologist ablates from inside the heart and the cardiac surgeon ablates on the outside the heart. Dr. James Edgerton, a cardiac surgeon at The Heart Hospital Baylor Plano in Texas, who spoke …
Read More
Not all atrial fibrillation patients are candidates for an ablation, either catheter ablation or surgical ablation, such as the maze or mini maze procedures. Thus their stroke risk remains high. We recently wrote about the FDA’s approval of the AtriClip device, which is implanted during open heart surgery and reduces stroke risk by occluding (closing …
Read More
Lately there have been questions, comments, and requests for atrial fibrillation information that already exists in the StopAfib.org news story archives. So with September being Atrial Fibrillation Month, it seems appropriate to call attention to the important afib documents and stories in our News archives. You'll generally find there stories that are more than 3 months old. Go to StopAfib.org Archived …
Read More