Persistent Atrial Fibrillation Related to a Congenital Pericardial Defect and Left Atrial Appendage Herniation

• Main Authors: Heemoon Lee, Dong Seop Jeong, In Sook Kim, Byung Jo Park
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korean Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 2015-12-01
• Series: Korean Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
• Subjects: Pericardium; Atrial fibrillation; Video-assisted thoracic surgery; Herniation; Atrial appendage
• Online Access: http://www.kjtcvs.org/journal/download_pdf.php?doi=10.5090/kjtcs.2015.48.6.429
• ISSN: 2233-601X; 2093-6516

Congenital pericardial defects (CPDs) are infrequent anomalies that are usually asymptomatic and are discovered incidentally during unrelated interventions. Here we report the case of a CPD with herniation of an enlarged left atrial appendage identified during total thoracoscopic ablation (TTA) for persistent atrial fibrillation (AF). The persistent AF was successfully treated with a hybrid procedure, in which TTA was followed by an electrophysiological study.