Has anyone had the Mini Maze procedure done?

[angelkisses50]

The mini maze procedure offers a way to stop the irregular heartbeats and heart palpitations without the long and difficult recovery for open-heart surgery. It is a potential atrial fibrillation cure.

[BobD Volunteer]

I would argue that there is no proven "cure" for AF and whilst minimally invasive  procedures like MiniMaze can work, so can ablations in all their different formats. It all depends a great deal on how complex are the rogue elements within the heart. Some good success has been noted with hybrid ablations using both internal (RF ) and external scar formation but I have not seen any long term data to show that this is any more successful than RF or cryo over time.

If you take success as no AF for five years then I would accept the term cure but real long term freedom is still rather tenuous.

Freedom from symptoms is the real test.

Remember that this science is little more than 20 years old  and there have been few real breakthroughs in the last five years. Those advances such as cryo ablation and de Vinci robot  have made life easier for the operator (EP),  speeded up the process and  reduced the X ray exposure for patients and staff but uses are still limited in some cases as a study of these procedures will show..

Bob

[angelkisses50 in reply to BobD]

Thanks for your reply.  I had never even heard of this procedure until yesterday.  I don't like to be the guinea pig on new procedures. lol

[robin5]

I am not sure how or if "mini maze" differs from the hybrid ablation ( mentioned by Bob ) I had hybrid ablation last year the first part in October and the second just before Christmas. The first part involves ablating the outside of the heart via keyhole under the sternum.

I was the fourth person to have the procedure done at the hospital and so far so good although I am still on Flecanide. It took several weeks to recover completely from the first ablation by which time I was due for the catheter ablation.  Five months have passed since part one and my heart feels fine. I would normally have expected to have had several episodes of AF in that time, My next check up is in May.