Background: Re-entrant atrial arrhythmias are common in patients after cardiac surgery. To date, however, no studies have reported the safety and efficacy of radiofrequency (RF) ablation of macro-re-entrant atrial arrhythmias in a unique, homogeneous group of patients after surgical replacement of the aortic valve and single right atriotomy.
Methods: Among over 4,000 RF catheter ablations performed at the authors' center between 2008 and 2014, eight patients (seven males, one female; mean age 55.1 ± 19.9 years) after aortic valve replacement (AVR) and without history of any other cardiosurgical procedures were identified with documented macro-re-entrant atrial arrhythmia. The mechanism of macro-re-entrant arrhythmia was analyzed, as well as the safety and efficacy of RF ablation in a group of patients after AVR and single right atrial free wall atriotomy.
Results: The average time from surgery to RF catheter ablation was 11.3 ± 11.3 years (range: 4-35 years). In five patients with permanent arrhythmia, entrainment mapping proved these arrhythmias to be cavotricuspid isthmus- dependent, in three patients with paroxysmal atrial arrhythmia cavotricuspid isthmus-dependent atrial flutter was induced during the electrophysiological study. Intra-atrial re-entrant tachycardia was neither recorded nor induced in any patient. Successful ablation of cavotricuspid isthmus is defined as the termination of arrhythmia, and bidirectional block in cavotricuspid isthmus was achieved in all patients. A long-term follow up, based on a seven-day Holter monitoring, was conducted in all patients, with a mean observation time of 40.1 ± 28.6 months after the procedure. Among the patients, ablated arrhythmia (cavotricuspid isthmusdependent atrial flutter) recurred in one patient, atrial fibrillation occurred in three patients, and an atrial tachycardia in one patient.
Conclusions: In the presented series of patients, cavotricuspid isthmus-dependent atrial flutter was shown to be the mechanism of post-cardiosurgical macro-re-entrant clinical arrhythmia in all subjects. Atrial fibrillation was frequently observed among those patients during follow up.