Posted by Jack Drum on January 16, 2002 at 23:31:54:
In Reply to: ablation posted by jerry on January 16, 2002 at 21:45:45:
Jerry, and Carl I don't understand why or how they can put out the ablation stats that they do. Dr. Natale is one of their ablation specialist and I don't think he has any connections with the maze surgery there.
I may be wrong on this but I think the EP Ablations specialist and the Maze surgeons are two separate empires of their own who operate separately, and maybe in competition of each other.
Jerry the person mentioned in the post, the one with persistent afib despite medications and have an otherwise normal heart is the ideal subject for ablation because they have to have the heart fibrillating to do the ablation, and with the chronic AF it is one thing in their favor. I still don't believe the 80% cure rate in the long term. Many ablations hold for short term but come back in the near future.
Dr. Gillinov does the open heart maze as we know it with most of the scaring done by the microwave, and RF method, with very little or no cutting, and can be, or is being done on a beating heart. He hopes to continue to improve this so he can do it in the minimal fashion with out opening the chest, but he said that there are problems to overcome before it is done that way.
There is a huge swell of interest in the AF treatment methods, and many variations of the different treatments that has been available. I find it difficult to understand the differences in some of the variations now being used.
I do think that eventually a better method of AF cure will emerge from all the new things going on. For the present time I still think the tried and proven maze procedure is the best on the market. Only my opinion.