I just got back to the board and was reading all the old posts. About 3 or 4 months ago I e-mailed Dr. Jackson asking a lot of questions. Shortly thereafter his secretary(nurse) called me at my office. She told me that Dr. Jackson was known as a pioneer in the field of ablations and that he and his collagues had been to Europe several times studing in the EP labs over there. She told me at the time that Dr. Jackson did not believe there was an ideal catheter on the market yet. (I had been asking about the difference between the 4 and 8mm catheter). Apparently Dr. Jackson used both catheters, but wasn't really satisified with either one. Dr Jackson is involved in a lot of research-probably more research than doing a large volume of ablations. His success rate was quoted to me by his nurse as 70%. I believed them to be conservative and honest, but being in AF approximately 80% of the time, I chose to go to the CCF where ablations are commonplace, are being done everyday by 5 different doctors with a 85% success rate overall.
Research is one thing(very important actually), but experience with the available tools being used today was where I was placing my attention. So who knows, maybe Dr. Jackson will have the best system in the future, but for me-well I had to think in terms of the present.
Jim W.
