Surgical VT Ablation
The procedural flowchart and the follow-up results of all 6 patients
were summarized in Figure 3. And the 12-lead electrocardiograms of VTs
were displayed in Figure 4. Among the 6 patients, three were accessed
with limited left thoracotomy and other three with median sternotomy.
Notably, previous epicardial RF lesions could hardly be visualized on
the cardiac surface in patients with history of epicardial ablation.
Voltage mapping, VT induction and activation mapping were performed
sequentially before ablation. Clinical VTs could be induced in all
patients at baseline in the procedure. With support from
anesthesiologists, VTs were hemodynamically tolerated in all patients to
allow activation mapping. All the VT locations were shown in Table 2.
VTs could be terminated during ablation but easily reinduced in all
patients. LVZs and late potentials or fragmented electrograms were
targeted and ablated if found (Supplementary Figure 1). After surgical
ablation, all the RF lesions were visible.