A safe and secure approach for creating a box lesion in the left atrium

Abstract

A bipolar radiofrequency clamp is an attractive alternative to the cut-and-sew technique for surgical ablation of atrial fibrillation. We have been using this device for isolating the posterior left atrium. However, there is a risk of disconnection of the ablation lines as well as perforation of the left atrium by the tip of the radiofrequency clamp. Here, we report our simple contrivance to make the procedure more secure and safe.