Left Atrial Anatomy Revisited

Abstract

Recent decades have seen rapid developments in arrhythmia treatment, especially the use of catheter ablation. Although the substrates of atrial fibrillation, its initiation and maintenance, remain to be fully elucidated, catheter ablation in the left atrium has become a therapeutic option for patients with this arrhythmia. With ablation techniques, various isolation lines and focal targets are deployed; the majority of these are anatomic approaches. It has been over a decade since we published our first article on the anatomy of the left atrium relevant to interventional electrophysiologists.1 Our aim then, as now, was to increase awareness of anatomic structures inside the left atrium. In this review of anatomy, we revisit the left atrium, inside as well as outside, for a better understanding of the atrial component parts and the spatial relationships of specific structures. ### Location and Atrial Walls Viewed from the frontal aspect of the chest, the left atrium is the most posteriorly situated of the cardiac chambers. Owing to the obliquity of the plane of the atrial septum and the different levels of the orifices of the mitral and tricuspid valves, the left atrial chamber is more posteriorly and superiorly situated relative to the right atrial chamber. The pulmonary veins enter the posterior part of the left atrium with the left veins located more superior than the right veins. The transverse pericardial sinus lies anterior to the left atrium, and in front of the sinus is the root of the aorta. The tracheal bifurcation, the esophagus, and descending thoracic aorta are immediately behind the pericardium overlying the posterior wall of the left atrium. Further behind is the vertebral column. Following the direction of blood flow, the atrial chamber begins at the pulmonary veno-atrial junctions and terminates at the fibro-fatty tissue plane that marks the atrioventricular junction at the mitral orifice. The walls …