Hybrid Staged Operating Room and Interventional Catheter Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation

Prospective, multi-center, investigator-driven trial. This study hypothesizes that combining surgical endoscopic and transcatheter techniques in a staged fashion provides superior clinical outcomes than isolated surgical/EP approaches in patients with persistent AF lasting \> 1 year but \> 5 years. The proposed procedure involves the creation of cardiac lesions with epicardially applied radiofrequency (RF) ablation through a minimally invasive surgical (MIS) approach followed by a delayed EP ablation procedure performed at 1-2 months from the surgical operation.