Since its introduction, percutaneous epicardial access is increasingly being performed to facilitate catheter ablation of ventricular tachycardias (VTs) with epicardial circuits, difficult cases of idiopathic VTs, focal atrial tachycardia, and accessory pathways that cannot be successfully targeted endocardially.1 A thorough understanding of the clinical anatomy and potential complications is vital in order to perform a safe procedure.2 In this article, we present the clinical anatomy related to epicardial access, the technique of performing a subxiphoid epicardial puncture, and various measures to prevent complications.
Remote monitoring (RM) of cardiac implantable devices is rapidly becoming the standard of care for implantable cardiac device follow-up.
