Device Delivery
Once the sheath had traversed the neck of the LAA opening, a small amount of contrast dye was injected to assess the depth of the remaining part of the LAA. WATCHMAN devices were deployed by advancing the sheath deeper into the LAA over a pigtail catheter until the sheath depth within the LAA was adequate for WATCHMAN placement. The sheath was then slowly retracted to deliver the WATCHMAN device behind the residual connection to the LAA (Figure 1C, 1E ). For the Amplatzer devices, the sheath was advanced into the LAA and the distal disc of the Amplatzer was exposed from the sheath. The device was then retracted until it was seated against the LAA side of the residual connection. The delivery sheath was then slowly withdrawn to expose the proximal disc of the device on the LA side of the connection (Figure 2C, 2E ).