Transesophageal Echocardiography During Radiofrequency Ablation of Left‐Sided Free Wall Atrioventricular Accessory Pathways in Wolff‐Parkinson‐White Syndrome

Abstract

This study reports our initial experience in performing radiofrequency ablations (RFA) of Wolff-Parkinson-White accessory pathways in the lateral wall of the left ventricle with monitoring and guidance provided by transesophageal echocardiography (TEE). Fifty R F A procedures were performed in 48 patients. TEE was used to detect underlying heart disease (in nine patients), monitor coronary sinus catheterization (in 15 patients), guide atrial transseptal catheterization (in 29 procedures), help position the RFA catheter's tip, and evaluate for possible complications in all patients. The study suggests that TEE may help to guide electrophysiologists during their initial experience with RFA procedures.

Phased‐Array Intracardiac Echocardiography for Guiding Transseptal Catheter Placement: Utility and Learning Curve

“…Transesophageal echocardiography, which has also been used to facilitate transseptal access for ablative purposes, [6][7][8][9][10][11][12] can be uncomfortable for the patient and usually requires two operators for simultaneous imaging and catheter manipulation. More recently, catheter-based mechanical ultrasound has been used in animal [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] and human [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] studies, although visualization with available systems has been limited to near-field vi-sualization of needle and sheath introduction into the lateral LA.…”