Surgical pen testing during thoracoscopic ablation is effective to assess electrical conduction block when multi-point testing strategy is utilised

Abstract

Our data shows that the surgical pen provides robust conduction block assessment when testing at multiple points and is comparable to multipolar electrophysiological catheter testing. The surgical pen is also compatible with a wider range of patient anatomies than the multipolar electrophysiological catheter and is technically less demanding. Multipoint surgical pen testing takes less time and hence makes the TSA procedural workflow more efficient. The surgical pen is multi-purpose and during the procedure is used to ablate, pace and sense. Finally, just using the surgical pen at multiple sites has a cost benefit, due to the additional cost (£600) of the multipolar electrophysiological catheters whereas the surgical pen is a mandatory requirement for ablation in TSA procedure.