Q: Can a Patient with Mitral Valve Replacement have a Catheter Ablation?
Absolutely. So, we see that all the time and we really like to work in conjunction with our surgeons. A lot of surgeons have access to tools that are very powerful when they’re actually looking at the heart, so they can do ablation during the valve surgery and they can even get rid of the left atrial appendage, where clots form, during the valve surgery, and they can do most of the work for us.
Then, as an electrophysiologist, I can come in and find a couple of areas that may have healed, or a couple of areas that need to be addressed with a catheter and think of it as a hybrid procedure. But, even if a surgeon doesn’t do that – we call that procedure a maze procedure. So, if a surgeon doesn’t do the maze procedure as part of the valve replacement, we can actually go in and do – start to finish – the ablation, even with having had a valve replacement.