Overview of nContact in AF Marketplace

Combining the Best Techniques of Surgeons and Cardiologists to Improve Outcomes

 

 

 

 

 

 

nContact’s technology has enabled physicians to utilize the best approaches of both surgeons and cardiologists to potentially improve efficacy and safety by developing a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary, truly minimally invasive procedure, The Convergent Procedure. The procedure’s name represents the convergence of skills, techniques and technologies to produce a comprehensive procedure that in combination addresses the limitations of each discipline’s individual approaches.

Individual Approaches
Catheter approaches have had success in the treatment of patients with atrial fibrillation and no structural heart disease. Typically, catheter success is estimated to be approximately 70% in the paroxysmal patient population, but the definition of success includes repeat procedures and allowing patients to remain on anti-arrhythmic drugs. The treatment advantage is the minimally invasive percutaneous approach which allows patients to quickly recover.  The disadvantage is that catheter ablation has not been effective for patients with structural heart disease who have enlarged atria (>4.5cm).   Surgical approaches cite the same 70% outcome for success but without repeat procedures and patients are off anti-arrhythmic drugs. The gold standard for surgical treatment is based on creating a bi-atrial lesion pattern known as a Maze pattern. This was originally done by placing the patient on bypass, removing the heart and creating incisions to form the Maze pattern. Today, other surgical techniques are used to create Mini Maze patterns, but the disadvantage is obvious. It is too invasive requiring sternotomies, bi-lateral thorocotomies or thorocotomies, which also require lung deflation and heart tissue dissections.

Leveraging the Best of Both Disciplines to Provide a Minimally Invasive Option for All AF Patients

The Convergent Procedure utilizes a truly minimally invasive technique known as SUBTLE™ (sub-thoracic, total endoscopic) access which allows the surgeon to access the atria through a one inch incision in the abdomen. The nContact technology allows for the creation of long, linear, epicardial lesions that can be connected by the EPs into a bi-atrial lesion pattern, modeled after the Maze pattern. In combination, the Convergent procedure is a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary approach utilizing intra-operative diagnostics to predict success.

Unique SUBTLE Access Provides Visualization