The Maze Procedure for Atrial Fibrillation

From Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis:

The Maze procedure, developed at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, is a surgical intervention that cures atrial fibrillation (AF) by interrupting the circular electrical patterns or wavelets that are responsible for this arrhythmia. Just like its name, the cardiothoracic surgeon creates barriers and blind alleys within the heart so the electrical impulse has only one route to travel. This causes the malfunctioning electrical system of the heart to move in the correct sequence in a normal top-to-bottom direction.

The surgical procedure is done by making strategic incisions in the heart, and the resulting little scars create the permanent barriers to form the maze. The Maze corrects the three problems associated with atrial fibrillation - permanently erases the arrhythmia, restores proper rhythm between the atrium and the ventricles and preserves a correct and organized contraction of the atria.

Lots of good info. This is the procedure I had done four years ago to-day.

Comments

[Ray Kelly]

I had the procedure done 13 months ago and still get small bouts of a-fib. I belch and it goes back into rythm.

[Ray Kelly]

I had a Maze procedure done 13 months ago. Still get flutters. But they go away when I belch.

[horkes]

Remove it from the loud sound described as among the People of the individual during sleep, especially in the medical sense, the most common cause of snoring soft palate observed in adults, little more than normal growth of the tongue, the muscles sag and tension and blockage of the airway during sleep, losing little of the language titresmesidi