Conduction System Pacing Upgrade in Chronic Heart Failure with Severe Left Ventricular Dysfunction and Chronic Atrial Fibrillation.

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is a standard treatment for patients with severe congestive heart failure. However, one-third of patients receiving CRT are non-responders. Conduction system pacing (CSP), including His-bundle pacing (HBP) and left bundle branch area pacing (LBBAP), has become an alternative to CRT therapy. Furthermore, CRT therapy with CSP has shown to be more effective than CRT alone. When an implantable cardiac defibrillator or CRT-defibrillator is implanted with CSP, the problem of which port the HBP lead and LBBAP lead should be connected to arises. We report 2 cases of upgrading to CRT with CSP by utilizing the atrial ports for HBP and LBBAP leads. The procedure is a simple, reasonable, and effective therapy for end-stage heart failure.

[Pulmonary vein isolation using cut and sew technique].

We reviewed our cut and sew pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) series for chronic or paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (Af). Intraoperative evaluation of sinus nodal function with electrical defibrillation and atrial pacing and the incision to mitral annulus adding to PVI were important factors to restore sinus rhythm. Ninety-two percent of the patients with the good sinus nodal function restored sinus rhythm. These findings will be useful information for surgical ablation of Af with or without new energy sources.