Esophageal Deviation in Atrial Fibrillation Ablation
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03261973. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Catheter ablation with pulmonary vein (PV) isolation is a commonly performed strategy employed for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF). However, ablation in the posterior wall of the left atrium can cause thermal injury to the esophagus. Thermal injury is very common and occurs in up to 40% of AF ablations per some studies. When significant thermal injury to the esophagus occurs, two significant complications can arise: 1) the formation of an atrio-esophageal fistula, and 2) gastrointestinal dysmotility. While the occurrence of fistula is rare, it is a very important complication since it is often fatal. Currently luminal esophageal temperature monitoring is the most commonly employed modality to prevent such injury. However, there are limitations to its use, and atrio-esophageal fistulas continue to be a major problem in AF ablation even when using esophageal temperature monitoring. Esophageal deviation using either a Transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) or Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) probe has been described in the literature, but the effectiveness and practicality of these techniques are suboptimal, and have therefore precluded their use in routine clinical practice. Recently, esophageal deviation using off-the-shelf equipment (a soft thoracic tube and endotracheal stylet) was tested in the randomized double-blind multicenter study "Deviating the Esophagus in Atrial Fibrillation Ablation (DEVIATE-AF)". In that study the standard practice (i.e., use of luminal esophageal temperature monitoring) was compared to esophageal deviation using off-the-shelf equipment. The results were very encouraging showing that esophageal deviation allowed for significant reductions in esophageal temperature and proportion of premature ablation terminations. Importantly, esophageal deviation allowed the isolation all PVs in the treatment group, which was not the case in the control group. One major limitation in the DEVIATE-AF trial was that off-the-shelf equipment tool was challenging to use. The aim of the Esophageal Deviation in Atrial Fibrillation Ablation study is to test the feasibility and safety of moving the esophagus using a specialized esophageal deviation tool (DV8, Manual Surgical Sciences, Minneapolis, MN).
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT03261973
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 47 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years to 80 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Nov 16, 2017
- Primary completion
- Jun 14, 2020
- Completion
- Jun 14, 2020
- Last update posted
- Jun 29, 2021
2017 – 2020
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts General Hospital | Boston | Massachusetts | 02114 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03261973, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Jun 29, 2021 · Synced Sep 9, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT03261973 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.