ABSTRACT
Introduction The quest is obvious to combine the excellent idea of percutaneous exclusion of the left atrial appendage to obviate the need for chronic oral anticoagulation1 with the general ease of Amplatzer (AGA Medical Corporation, Golden Valley, Minnesota, USA) shunt closure device implantations. After initial experiments with cadaver hearts (Figure 64.1) a first clinical case was performed on 15 June, 2002.2
This constituted the first left atrial appendage closure worldwide in an awake patient without transesophageal echocardiographic guidance (Figure 64.2).
