Ablation treatment strategies for atrial fibrillation

The present series of publications represent a comprehensive review of ablation techniques, energy sources, lesion sets, and hybrid approaches performed in the surgical management of atrial fibrillation. Endpoints examined include the srahort-term and medium-term success rate and complications of concomitant ablation with cardiac surgery in "Surgical ablation for treatment of atrial fibrillation in cardiac surgery - a cumulative meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials"(2014). Minimally invasive thoracoscopic epicardial ablation was compared with percutaneous catheter ablation in terms of success rates and complications in "Thoracoscopic surgical ablation versus catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation"(2016). Energy sources explored include radiofrequency ablation, cryoenergy, microwave and cut-and-sew techniques, as examined in "Comparing energy sources for surgical ablation of atrial fibrillation - A Bayesian network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials"(2015). Biatrial versus left-atrial lesion sets were compared in "Biatrial ablation versus left atrial concomitant surgical ablation for treatment of atrial fibrillation: a meta-analysis"(2015). The role of obesity in postoperative atrial fibrillation was demonstrated in "Obesity and postoperative atrial fibrillation in patients undergoing cardiac surgery: systematic review and meta-analysis" (2016), and the impact of obesity on the outcomes of hybrid ablation procedure was investigated via a retrospective analysis of 3-year follow-up data in "Effectiveness and safety of simultaneous hybrid thoracoscopic endocardial catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation in obese and non-obese patients"(2016). Overall, this body of work includes comprehensive and up-to-date clinical data on the surgical management of atrial fibrillation in the existing medical literature.