5-Box TTM

To Ken and others who have undergone the TTM procedure at Ohio State: I have made an appointmet with Dr. Sirak for November 17 to have the TTM procedure. I have lone, persistant A-Fib. It started 5 years ago and after two ablations I was in NSR for the next three years. Then another attack followed a month later by a CV and I was OK for a year and a half. Since June of this year I have been in A-Fib and neither medications or two CVs have worked. So, after researching for close to two months, I have decided to bite the bullet and get this taken care of once and for all (I hope). Wish me luck!!!

Chuck,

Can you tell us about your decision making in choosing this procedure and this doctor. I have been in contact with Dr Sirak and I found what he had to say interesting. However I don't know how to go about objectively evaluating chances of success with him. I usually get my information here but most of the posters here who have had procedures have had ablations. I have not found Jack Drums web site easy to follow and it did not have the same type of expert information that we get here.

Best of luck to you.

Dennis

Dennis, I think I just feel I have the best chance for a cure with Dr. Sirak. I have persistant A-Fib--not as easy to cure by ablation as paraxomal (not sure of spelling). After two failed ablations I don't have any confidence on the long term results of another one. Ask Dr Sirak to send you some info on his results--his statistics seem to be outstanding and his follow up procedure is much better than the telephone calls I got after my ablation asking me how I was doing. All I can suggest is read, read, and then read some more. It is a tough decision--but having information will help lead to the proper decision for you.

Chuck

Have you considered the Wolf Mini Maze? I'm weighing this against the 5 Box.

I understand that the 5 box is the Wolf Mini Maze plus additional lines ensuring a complete isolation of the arrymogenic areas of the L atrium. This sort of guarantees that there is no more af -- in theory. If you are going to have surgery why not have the complete lesion set done!

However who is more experienced and the better surgeon?. What is the long term outcome of these proceedures?

I don't know

Sirak sent me a copy of a recent journal article. The peer review process is a powerful thing...speaking as a research scientist who occasionally publishes my own results. I found it interesting and he has another one with a larger set of subjects. I passed these along to my EP but haven't heard back.

Right now I'm leaning towards the 5 Box.

Please keep me informed of what you learn. I am also considering it.

Dennis,

I spoke with both the mini-maze provider and Dr. Sirak yesterday. I'm going to schedule the 5-Box for early December. The mini-maze provider, I don't want to name the group, didn't give me the 'warm fuzzy' i need as a research chemist. They have data but he was reluctant to say much about my particular case since I've had two previous ablations. His statement was that I'm a 'difficult case' since these had failed and no insight into the nature of my AF, which I think is vagally mediated from my reviews of literature. My EP hasn't disagreed.

Sirak was much more open and assuring. Although his data set is about 10% the size of the large mini maze people in general, he has the same number of patients as this particular clinic.