Posted by Jack Drum on November 14, 2001 at 22:53:04:
In Reply to: MAZE posted by Tony Billingham on November 14, 2001 at 18:37:13:
Tony, when I state 90+, or 95% cure rate for the maze, I am combining the information taken from papers published by Dr. Cox, the Cleveland Clinic, Mayo's and the other surgeons with papers published in the different medical journals.
Exactly how they reach the statistics they quote, I don't know. I hear from some of the Mazers that some of the facilities are a little lax on the follow up.
All facilities that does the maze will do the full open heart, but most of them have their own modifications as to how they do certain things.
The Cleveland Clinic does a minimal through the chest (as Henry described) but doesn't split the sternum.
The OSU Medical Center does the minimal through the rib cage.
There are several different ways that the lesions on the heart are made, and the newest is Microwave done at a few facilities.
Most surgeons do the open heart Maze III procedure that is the operation that provided most of the statistics that you see on the maze.
Hope this helps some.