Introduction
Atrial fibrillation is the most common type of persistent arrhythmia. In
addition to causing palpitations and discomfort, the onset of atrial
fibrillation increases the risk of thromboembolism (1). Evidence
reported in the literature both at home and abroad indicates that
thrombosis from the left atrial appendage is the main cause of stroke in
atrial fibrillation (2). Multiple observational studies indicate the
feasibility and safety of surgical LAA occlusion/exclusion(3,4).
Surgical occlusion techniques include excision, stapler removal and
running sutures, and with more recent technological advances, occlusion
via innovative devices such as AtriClip and TigerPaw (5). However, the
above methods cannot completely isolate the LAA. Some of these
operations may have thrombosis complications in the long term(6). Some
of them need to be operated after cardiac arrest by extracorporeal
circulation, and this surgical method has a high risk of bleeding and is
difficult to stop the bleeding. Therefore, we chose to perform
thoracoscopic radiofrequency ablation of atrial fibrillation and implant
the left atrial appendage occluder through the epicardial pathway.