Posted by steve giddings on April 08, 2002 at 08:32:50:
In Reply to: Help - Concerned Mazer and Dr. Razavi posted by Tim Hawkins on April 07, 2002 at 10:02:44:
Tim:
I would add my second to the comments to every response to your post, and make a couple in addition.
Take a look at the abstract by Dr. McCarthy and colleagus listed in the articles section above:
Semin Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2000 Jan;12(1):25-9This paper was written probably in early or mid 1999 and published in 2000. AT that point, most of the maze procedures he did were done as part of another heart repair, most aften mitral valve replacement. Even in that setting, with an enlarged, chronically overtaxed left atrium, the success rate was 90%. I have little doubt that his success rate with lone AF is even higher, particularly with the greatly increased numbers of procedures over the last 3 years.
A physician who deliberately undercuts or questions the truthfulness of another physician is not doing a good job unless he/she has good reason to suspect malpractive, negligence or that the patient will be done significant harm by continuing along a certain course of therapy. Changing a medication dose is one thing, telling a patient that a major operation is unlikely to be of benefit is quite another. First, there are numerous series by several surgeons to support the stated success rate. Even if 98% were a bit optimistic( and I don't think it is), suggesting that you haven't been cured at this point serves no benefit. It is in fact detrimental to your recovery. Don't believe it. The chances are very high that you've been cured of af in the long term, even if you have post op af requiring treatment with antiarrhythmics during the first several months por op. this occurs in 33-50% of patients. Probably even more have it but never notice it because the episodes are transient. There is excellent data to support all this.
Short answer, hang in there. Don't be discouraged. Add: A quick note to Henry, post op flutter can be fixed. Check back with CC or check with CT surgery at Georgetown. They have EP folks who know this specific fix.