Posted by Carl Plaskett on November 15, 2001 at 21:37:11:
In Reply to: Re: Day 48 Update posted by Jim Roff on November 15, 2001 at 18:37:19:
Jim: I also asked Dr. McCarthy about the APPARENT longer period for mini-mazers to regain NSR relative to the open chest recipients, just a few hours before my own maze. I stressed to him that I was going to have the maze no matter how he did it, but that I had read more reports of slower return to NSR with the "mini". He was non-committal, and said: "We'll see when we get in there." I guess I was not a candidate for the mini.
In fact, I didn't know which I had experienced until I asked while in the ICU, after waking up and seeing that I was in NSR.If you asked him about length of time "to heal", I fully understand his response, since mini-mazers "heal" or recover from the surgery faster. Perhaps it SEEMS as though there are more mini-mazers saying that they are not in NSR as fast as the open chest mazers because there are more "mini's" being done, hence we see more of those postings.
The end result, NSR, certainly appears to be the same from what has been posted in the last 14 months or so.
I THINK I read here sometime back that OSU did the mini-maze through the right side of the ribs as opposed to the left side as I believe is done at the CC, so, while they are both referred to as "mini" or minimally invasive mazes, they are somewhat different in their approach. Perhaps that has something to do with why they are doing the open chest routine now?