Are you considering one?

My EP, when considering my treatment options, told me of a woman under his care who was in Afib and though she had the gold standard of care with the maze surgery. He said that there is no cure for Afib. Apparently there have been ablation sand other treatments/surgeries that work for a time, but there is no guarantee that it won't return.

I read one of your replies to someone and you put the link for Stop Afib and I read some of the articles on the procedures available and found the mini maze procedure very interesting. The article said this procedure has been very successful and is not as invasive as the regular Maze procedure, It got me to wondering why Afib patients have to go through so much, i.e, ablation, carioversionsk,etc when it seems like this procedure would stop the problems we have to go through. I would definitely go for it and I am going to ask my cartiologist about it.

Yogacat my reply was meant for you.

Mini-maze is a bigger deal than ablation and electrocardioversion. Much bigger.

If you go to the stop afib site you can read about the procedure and one womans success with the procedure. She hasn''t had any afib now since 2005. It might be a bigger deal but it sounds like the results are much better than having ablations over and over. The same with carioversions. If I was having the problems so many seem to have on this site I would demand the procedure. Drs are making a lot of money doing ablations, etc. over and over when this procedure appears to offer a good chance of correcting the problem. I have been fortunate so far and not had any episode since being diagnosed in April. I have read that my type at this time (can't remember what it is called) is going to progress and eventually end in permanent afib. The article states that people with my type afib are the best candidates for this surgery, I am going to discuss this with my Dr. this Tuesday and see what he has to say.

K,
Your type would be considered Paroxysmal. If I am not mistaken the wonderful and amazing founder of stopafib.org, Mellanie Truehills, had the mini-maze done, and she has had no issues (nope, cannot say that, I don't know her entire story)....but hasn't had a recurrence of afib in over a decade. I am with you, in that I believe from the teensy bit of research I have done, that ablation should be the first line treatment, but many people smarter than I disagree with that assessment. I actually asked my wonderful EP, Dr. Hugh Calkins at Johns Hopkins, about the mini-maze, and he pointed out that they tell you right off the bat that they are going to keep you in the hospital for 3 or 4 days after the surgery. Why do they do this? They want to keep an eye on you to make sure there are no serious complications. With the more standard ablation, you are in and out, with perhaps an overnight stay...my entry site was still seeping, so they kept me a second day (I assured them that since my site was just "weeping," that I would be ok to go home..they said "Oh no, if this starts to bleed a little more you will freak out!" and of course they were right, I am sure I would have). Mini-Maze is certainly one of many options out there..I see on the stopafib site that there are a number of new catheters under study right now. Amazing progress is being made. It is a tough choice to make, and all you need to do is choose one that you and your EP are happy with. Best of luck in making your decision!

Bill

I am considering the mini-maze myself... since I've had (3) ablations, and still have AFIB.

Dr. B (and others) at Duke told me that I can't have any more ablations, and the success rate would not improve.

I discussed this with my EP a couple of weeks ago among other options. Basically this was just the next step in a process to get treatment. Unfortunately for me, there aren't many other options available.

I believe there are many people who have a single ablation, and are 'cured' for years... so ablations do work, just not for us hard-core types.

Robert

Thanks everyone for your replies. Robert if you decide to have the mini maze I hope you will let us know how it goes. I wish you the best and hope you get better,

Bill that was article I was referring to. She sure went thru hell before her procedure. That is what I want to avoid, If she had the procedure sooner she probably wouldn't have had to suffer so much. I'll let everyone know what my dr. has to say about it tomorrow.

Kathy