Doctors & patients are saying about 'A-Fib.com'...
"A-Fib.com is a great web site for patients, that is unequaled by anything else out there."
Dr. Douglas L. Packer, MD, FHRS, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
"Jill and I put you and your work in our prayers every night. What you do to help people through this [A-Fib] process is really incredible."
Jill and Steve Douglas, East Troy, WI
“I really appreciate all the information on your website as it allows me to be a better informed patient and to know what questions to ask my EP.
Faye Spencer, Boise, ID, April 2017
“I think your site has helped a lot of patients.”Dr. Hugh G. Calkins, MD Johns Hopkins,
Baltimore, MD
2017 AF Symposium: Preventing Esophageal Fistula
Report 14 from the 2017 AF Symposium summarizes a live ablation using a new tool to protect the esophagus.
The Problem: During an ablation, doctors take great precautions to not heat or injure the esophagus which lies behind the posterior wall of the left atrium. Injuring the esophagus can, in very rare cases, cause an atrial esophageal fistula which can be fatal.
Fear of causing esophageal injury can cause the EP to modify the ablation lesion set delivery, thereby reducing ablation success.
New Solution: an Esophagus displacement tool.
The EsoSure Esophageal Retractor allows doctors to re-position a section of the esophagus away from the nearby heart tissue and avoid the heat generated during ablation.
Live streaming ablation: In this re-do ablation, entrainment (pacing) mapping was used to identify non-PV triggers.
Since they had to ablate in the posterior of the left atrium next to the esophagus, they simply moved the EsoSure Retractor up and down to displace the esophagus. The EPs remarked they could now ablate at a higher wattage without fear of harming the esophagus. …continuing reading my report…
