Posted by Tim Hawkins on April 09, 2002 at 07:15:20:
In Reply to: Return to Cleveland --- Post-Maze Ablation? posted by Henry Alken on April 08, 2002 at 21:57:02:
Henry,
Your post about McCarthy/Hammer and the ablation come to me the day after I had a meeting with Dr. Hammer. I had several questions for Dr. Hammer and wanted them answered before I left the CC. I told Dr. Hammer that when I first spoke with McCarthy about the maze he had said that in my case (no other heart problems) the odds were 98% for a cure. I had heard this before but it was better coming from McCarthy before I let myself be placed on the operating table. After he mentioned the 98% figure he said that the other 2% could later be ablated. He said that problems could be caused by a foci that located on top of one of the maze scare lines. I thought wow, that sounds like he is saying that my odds are close to 100%. Yesterday, at Dr Hammer's office I told Hammer what McCarthy told me. He agreed completely. Hammer told me that ablations were getting better every day and that the afib cure rates with the ablation procedure might someday be on par with the maze procedure. He mentioned a 3-year time frame as just a guess. He said that if one did go for the ablation that there was no better place to do it than the CC.
Two years ago I was ablated for flutter only. The first time it didn't work but I was cured of flutter after the second try. I never had flutter after that. I was stuck with afib only. Flutter ablation is much safer and more a sure thing than afib ablation. It is totally a different procedure. I would guess that flutter ablation would be safe and easy in your case. If I were in your shoes I would probably wait a couple more months and see if the flutter goes away. If it doesn't, than I'd go back to the CC and have them do it. A big advantage is that they will understand the changes to the heart caused by the maze. After they do the electrical study of your heart in the fancy Cath lab, they might find that you have only one small foci on a maze scare line that is causing your problem and that a couple of minutes with radio freq. Ablation will stop it from firing again. I say again, this is not afib ablation like Angie Strand had.
Keep me posted.