Drs. Noona and Beller from the prestigious UVA TCV join me on the pod to discuss their latest work describing the trends in prophylactic LAA-clip and its association with early stroke, mortality and hospital costs. Listen in to learn more about this possible prequel to the LeAAPs RCT!

I review the PETAF Study, which evaluates the ability of FAPI-PET-MRI in fibrosis detection in varying populations of AF - PAF, PersAF and PmAF. I also discuss these findings relative to DECAFF (LGE-MRI) and the implications for empiric LAPW ablation.

Dr. Asishana Osho - a distinguished Cardiac surgeon from MGH - Harvard Medical School, joins us on the podcast to share his finds of the PAPPA trial; Pericardiotomy & Amiodarone for Prophylaxis against POAF. Listen here to find out if it works!

Dr. Ralph Damiano, a distinguished Professor of Cardiac Surgery at Washington University in St. Louis, MO joins the podcast to discuss his latest manuscript, highlighting the long-term outcomes of surgical ablation in patients undergoing mitral valve surgery. Dr. Damiano is a true legend in our field and it was an absolute honor to speak with him and discuss his latest work!

I review the latest 2024 STS ACDS Update with a focus on the Afib section. I also, include a summary of the robotic-assisted left atrial appendage exclusion study by the group at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Listen to find out how much surgical ablation in CABG patients has improved since 2015!!!

I review an elegant RCT by the Bordeaux EP group, examining a comparison between B-PVI and the Marshall Plan in patients with non-paroxysmal Atrial fibrillation. Is this finally the RCT that shows that ablation beyond PVI is better than PVI ablation only? Listen to find out!

I try to address an often asked question about whether I continue or stop OAC after successful surgical LAAO in a patient with pre-existing atrial fibrillation. This episode provides a deep dive into the LAAOS 3 trial and the most recent 2023 ACC/AHA guidelines.

Dr. Hunter Mehaffey is an outstanding Cardiac Surgeon and Clinical Researcher at the West Virginia University. During this episode we discuss his most recent fantastic contribution to the space of surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation with an episode about SAVR vs TAVR with concomitant AF. You definitely want to listen to this entire episode!

Drs. Chalfoun and Banno from Corewell Health Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids, MI discuss their landmark paper, “Four Year Follow-up of Outcomes of the Hybrid Epicardial-Endocardial Ablation: A Single Center Experience.” This is the first paper that describes the outcomes of the Convergent procedure in combination with left atrial appendage ligation with the AtriClip and Ligament of Marshall division. This in depth conversation covers all aspect of their program inception, growth and evolution to its current state and the results of their paper.

Dr. HelenMari Merritt is a distinguished Cardiac surgeon at Methodist Physicians Clinic in Omaha, Nebraska and specializes in the treatment of atrial fibrillation. She recently moderated the much anticipated Atrial Fibrillation Session at the 60th Annual 2024 STS Meetingin San Antonio, TX where the newest STS Guidelines for the Surgical Management of Atrial Fibrillation were presented. We discuss these new guidelines and more in this episode!

Dr. Whitney Fu from the prestigious University of Michigan is the principal author of an outstanding paper recently published in JTCVS entitled, “Postoperative atrial fibrillation in mitral valve surgery is not benign.” We discuss the important findings of this very revealing paper and shed some light on the often under-appreciated entity of POAF and its detrimental effects on post-MVR patient outcomes.

Dr. Hunter Mehaffey is an outstanding Cardiac Surgeon and Clinical Researcher at the West Virginia University. He recently presented at the AATS 2023 meeting and published in JTCVS a large Medicare analysis of over 100,000 cardiac surgery patients with pre-existing AF in attempts to answer the question if surgical ablation confers additional clinical advantage over LAAO alone. This is definitely worth a listen!

Dr. Charles Willekes and I discuss his recently reported randomized control study evaluating the safety and effectiveness of prophylactic bilateral pulmonary vein isolation in preventing post-operative atrial fibrillation. We also discuss our recent prophylactic posterior wall isolation technique to prevent POAF. Lots of new and intriguing data on this episode !!!

Ali Syed is a brave medical student who not only is at the forefront of Hybrid Ablation approaches as a member of the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Robotic Enhanced Convergent Plus team but also a #DEI advocate who shares his insight on the STS 2023 Presidential address.

In this episode Dr. Armin Kiankhooy describes a recent study revealing the results of a Hybrid team approach for the treatment of atrial fibrillation. He covers the hybrid technique, why it is important to separate each stage, which lesions to perform and how the approach has changed over time. Most importantly he shares how effective and safe this team approach has been in now nearly 1,000 patients!

Dr. Armin Kiankhooy describes the recently published LAALA study in Innovations which prospectively looked at the effectiveness and safety of AtriClip placement during both open and VATS cardiac surgery.

Dr. Vinay Badhwar, Gordon F. Murray Professor and Chair, Department of Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery at West Virginia University, shares with us the remarkable results of the Robotic-assisted Cryothermic Cox Maze for Persistent Atrial Fibrillation and gives us a sneak peak of possible upcoming change to the new surgical ablation and left atrial appendage management guidelines.

Dr. Tom Tadros an Electrophysiologist from Harvard Medical School - The Brigham & Women’s Hospital discusses the landmark DECAAF II study which examines the role of MRI guided endocardial ablation.

Dr. Brett Gidney is a cardiac electrophysiologist leading the charge to reform Medicare payments to EPs. He practices throughout the central coast of California from Thousand Oaks up to Santa Maria, including mainly at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, CA. He is board certified in clinical cardiac electrophysiology focusing on complex cardiac arrhythmia management and clinical faculty at UCLA. We discuss the drastic proposed Medicare cuts that are set to devalue AF ablation once again!!!

Dr. Bradley Knight and I discuss the upcoming CAST-AF 2022 meeting being held on August 26-27th in Chicago, IL. We review the exciting topics to be presented including PFA, the DECAAF Study, Left atrial appendage occlusion devices, the CONVERGE hybrid approach and then finish with a great conversation about the current state of EP resident/fellow training at Northwestern University.