Posted by Carl Plaskett on July 18, 2002 at 07:17:10:
In Reply to: Decisions, Decisions posted by Kristine on July 18, 2002 at 00:14:59:
Kristine: There are others posting here who have had previous open heart procedures and still have had the maze. They may answer your post if they visit within a few days while it is near the top of the page. You could also use the "search" feature and try entering "previous surgery" or "valve repair", etc., to see if you get some matches.
Our recent new member, Georges, who had the first open heart surgery to correct afib in '86 and then had the Maze in'87, obviously is in this group.
Living as close as you do to the CC, I would surely opt to go there or have my records sent to one of the fine ablation specialists and/or Dr.McCarthy for evaluation for what might be the best choice, before I tried again with someone who has not succeeded after several tries (if I read your post correctly) Flutter ablations are the easiest to perform, but a few people have subsequently developed, or had their afib worsen after getting rid of their flutter. The CC's ablation success has been quite good in the last year or so, much better than reported elsewhere, where different,older technology/techniques are still being used.