INSTRUMENT PORT FOR EPICARDIAL ABLATION WITH ANATOMICAL EPICARDIAL STRUCTURES AND REAL-TIME LESION IMAGE PROCESSOR

A method for controlling an epicardial ablation procedure comprises (a) inserting an instrument port comprising an ablation tool, an optical camera and an optical light emitter into an epicardial cavity proximal to a target region; (b) providing optical light into said epicardial cavity through said optical light emitter to illuminate said target region; (c) obtaining a first image of said target region using said optical camera; (d) steering a tip of said ablation tool towards said target region; (e) applying an ablation energy to said target region using the ablation tool so as to form a lesion in or on said target region; (f) obtaining a second image of said target region using said optical camera; and (g) processing at least one of said first and second images in an image processor so as to determine a characteristic of said lesion.