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Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2001;20:1188-1193
© 2001 Elsevier Science NL

Radiofrequency lesions produced by handheld temperature controlled probes for use in atrial fibrillation surgery

^a Department of Cardiology, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia
^b Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia

Received 5 April 2001; received in revised form 30 August 2001; accepted 31 August 2001.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +61-2-9845-6795; fax: +61-2-9845-8323
e-mail: stuartpt{at}yahoo.com

Objectives: Detailed analysis of the size and shape of lesions produced by handheld radiofrequency ablation devices at open heart surgery has not been reported previously. Methods: Radiofrequency lesions were made from the epicardial surface of the cardiac ventricles in open-chested dogs. The effects of electrode size, electrode temperature and duration of ablation were studied. In a second group of experiments simultaneous multielectrode ablation was performed on the ventricular epicardium after cold cardioplegia. Results: Using a single 12x2.5 mm electrode and a target temperature of 80°C the lesion depth increased from 3.8±0.9 mm at 15 s, to 6.1±0.9 mm at 120 s (P=0.01). Increasing the target temperature from 70 to 90°C (for 60 s) increased lesion depth from 5.0±1.2 to 5.6±1.7 mm (P=0.2). There was no difference in depth of lesions with the two electrode widths (4.0±0.5 mm (large) vs. 3.9±1.0 mm (small)). Lesions produced using the multielectrode probe (80°C, 60 s) were 30–35 mm long with even penetration into the tissue. The mean depth of these lesions on microscopic sections was 3.9 mm. The mean width was 7.1 mm. Conclusions: Handheld probes can be used to make deep linear lesions in the myocardium. Lesions expand rapidly and are wider than they are deep. A mulitelectrode ablation device allows rapid formation of linear lesions.

Key Words: Radiofrequency • Ablation • Atrial fibrillation

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