[HSF] A. Fib. Surgery: How to Assess Success?

[John Pym]

Hal

I'm going to talk to one of our senior Medtronic reps tomorrow (I have a
port-access epicardial BiV upgrade with them in the afternoon, following an
AVR at another hospital). As you know, the Reveal is about 6x2x1 cm and is
implanted subcutaneously, with no additional wires. It lasts around 14
months and can hold a total of 40 minutes or so of recorded EKG. I believe
that there are two programmable data collection modes - patient activated
and automatic, with programmable parameters for brady or tachy events. I'll
get more information on this.

John



On 7/8/07, Hgrmd at aol.com <Hgrmd at aol.com> wrote:
>
> John,
> Your idea to implant a Reveal device at the time of AF surgery makes
> perfect sense.  I'm going to check with the Medtronic reps and see
> what  they
> think.  Other surgeons in my group implant Reveals, so I don't have  any
> direct
> experience with it.  How long will it function on average?
> Evaluating the results of AF surgery is an ongoing  controversy.  It's
> become increasingly evident that spot ECG's don't give  an accurate
> assessment of
> actual AF burden.  In particular, it's probably  not safe to decide to
> withdraw Coumadin based on a postop ECG.
>
> Hal
>
>
>