maze

Do any of you know the best places that do the maze procedure? I have also read about an OPTIMAZE procedure at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York that only takes fifteen minutes. However, I think the fifteen minutes does not take into consideration opening and closing the chest cavity. They claim maze is 95% effective.

Glenn Camp

WHy have the Maze when ablation is so much safer?

Ablation is Safer? Ablation is not as effective as Maze from what I've read. When you have Afib as severe as I have it you will also want to have the one with the highest success rate wouldn't you?

Now I haven't ruled out the PVA ablation. In fact I don't even know exactly what kind of procedure would be best for me. It's a catch 22 either way.

I'm just trying to get as much informaton and try to make a decision as to which avenur to pursue.

Glenn Camp

Glenn:
Do you have a pacemaker? With afib as bad and symptomatic as yours, has anyone mentioned AV node ablation? I think I would rather have that than the Maze procedure. Maze requires open heart surgery and heart and lung machine. In AV node ablation, you would be 100% pacemaker dependant, but I think the success rate is about 98% or greater. In AV node ablation there is absolutely no communication between the upper and lower chambers, not even sinus node impulses. The two chamber electrodes cause atrial contraction and then ventricular contraction. All those rogue impulses from anywhere in the 2 atrial chambers then cannot pass through the AV node to the ventricles. That means flutter waves from the right atrium and fib waves from the left atrium as well (unforturnately sinus node impulses).

Pam

Hey,
I had the MAZE done in Peoria, Illinois at St. Francis Hospital by Dr. Dale Geiss. It was done on 10/22/02 and I have been in NSR ever since. I was in chronic a-fib for years trying all the drugs including several experimental ones to no avail. I would be cardioverted and put on these drugs and nothing worked. I decided on the MAZE as I am faily young at 40 (when the surgery was done) and was missing out on life. Dr. Geiss and my cardiologist Dr. Joe Sarmiento saved me! Still on a small dose of asprin and toprolxl and will be weened off of that over the next year. Back to golfing, walking, excercising and living again. If you would like any phone numbers or have any other questions please e-mail me. I would be glad to discuss the procedure with you.
Good luck and best wishes!
Rodger