Posted by Carl Plaskett on December 17, 2002 at 18:17:49:
In Reply to: Website Suggestion posted by Mike Ware on December 17, 2002 at 17:42:27:
I agree with Mike: While the maze has been the "gold standard" cure for afib, SOME (read as "Cleveland Clinic, & a FEW other sites) facilities are having amazing results with the NEWEST ablation techniques. I, for one, really don't care how people get "cured" of this dreadful ailment, as long as they are well informed and try to seek the best treatment for THEIR situation. Given that the maze may soon (within 2 years, hopefully) may become an almost non-surgical procedure, I think it would be a misnomer to refer to it as "maze surgery". "Afibcures" or "afibcureswithoutdrugs", "FORMERafibbers", etc., etc. might be a better name.
I would hate to turn off afib sufferers by having them think that maze "surgery" is the only answer just because so many of us had unsucessful ablations relatively recently. Folks just have to understand that all ablations are NOT the same and some (older techniques/instruments) have MUCH higher failure/complication issues.