title: Surgical therapy of atrial fibrillation.
abstract: Atrial fibrillation (AF) can be found in an increasing number of cardiac surgical patients due to a higher patient's age and comorbidities. Atrial fibrillation is known, however, to be a risk factor for a greater mortality, and one aim of intraoperative AF treatment is to approximate early and long-term survival of AF patients to survival of patients with preoperative sinus rhythm. Today, surgeons are more and more able to perform less complex, that is, minimally invasive cardiac surgical procedures. The evolution of alternative ablation technologies using different energy sources has revolutionized the surgical therapy of atrial fibrillation and allows adding the ablation therapy without adding significant risk. Thus, the surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation in combination with the cardiac surgery procedure allows to improve the postoperative long-term survival and to reduce permanent anticoagulation in these patients. This paper focuses on the variety of incisions, lesion sets, and surgical techniques, as well as energy modalities and results of AF ablation and also summarizes future trends and current devices in use.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Heart Center, University of Leipzig, 04289 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haensig
authors.forename: Ardawan Julian
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Rastan
authors.forename: David Michael
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Holzhey
authors.forename: Friedrich-Wilhelm
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Mohr
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Garbade