Hybrid Convergent Procedure with Proactive Esophageal Cooling for the Treatment of Long-Standing Persistent Atrial Fibrillation

The hybrid Convergent procedure is approved to treat symptomatic patients with long-standing persistent atrial fibrillation (AF). Despite direct visualization during surgical ablation as well as the use of luminal esophageal temperature (LET) monitoring, esophageal injury is still possible. A dedicated device for proactive esophageal cooling has recently been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reduce the likelihood of ablation-related esophageal injury resulting from radiofrequency cardiac ablation procedures. In this report, we describe the first uses of proactive esophageal cooling for esophageal protection during the epicardial ablation portion of hybrid convergent procedures.