Patient Population
From May 2003 to March 2020, 286 patients underwent elective stand-alone SA. Patients who underwent ablation procedures other than biatrial CMP-IV (n=18) or who did not have a complete left-sided lesion set (n=21) were excluded, leaving 247 patients. Of these remaining patients, our analysis was limited to only those who had long-standing persistent AF (n=174). Roughly half of this final cohort underwent sternotomy as compared to a minimally invasive right mini-thoracotomy (RMT). These operative techniques have been previously described by our group.[24]