Introduction: Convergent procedure (CP) includes high energy left atrial (LA) radiofrequency ablation (RFA) which may result in oesophageal injury due to tissue overheating. Our aim was to assess postprocedural oesophageal injury.
Methods: A retrospective study included 61 patients [age 60+-9.4 years, 48 (78.7%) male] that underwent CP for treatment of atrial fibrillation. Procedure included epicardial LA RFA combined with endocardial catheter RFA for pulmonary vein isolation. Precautions were taken to avoid oesophageal overheating (infusion of cooled saline into the pericardial space during epicardial ablations, monitoring of oesophageal temperature). All patients had endoscopy of the oesophagus 2 days after CP. Patients were followed for 3 to 62 months.

Results: 5 patients (8%) had redness of the mucosa in the part of the oesophagus that was adjacent to the posterior wall of the LA, in 4 of those patients repeat endoscopy showed complete healing of the injuries. Patients had no complications related to oesophageal injury during the time of follow up.
Conclusions: Rate of postprocedural oesophageal injury after convergent procedure was low. Only transient redness of the oesophageal mucosa was seen, which did not result in serious complications.