Study supports use of Atricure’s high-tech surgical gear

Heart problems are bad enough, but often the surgery needed to fix them means a long recovery.  West Chester-based AtriCure Inc. has developed surgical instruments aimed at minimizing the invasiveness of cardiac surgery and get patients healing faster.
A new study in a medical journal looked at patients whose doctors used AtriCure’s products to treat atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm that can be fatal.
The study, reported in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, found that 91 percent of the patients studied were in normal rhythm and off antiarrhythmic drugs at least a year after their surgeries.
AtriCure is pursuing the Food and Drug Administration’s OK to use its devices to treat atrial fibrillation.
“These promising minimally invasive products and techniques provided desirable results and are a viable option for selected atrial fibrillation patients,” said Dr. James Wudel, a cardiac surgeon at the Nebraska Heart Hosptal who published the study.
“On average, our length of hospital stay was three days and our patients went home to an improved quality of life,’’ Wudel said.

Source: Julie A. Piton, Atricure
Writer: David Holthaus