Posted by Carl Plaskett on September 22, 2001 at 10:45:01:
In Reply to: Sucess rate/ Death rate posted by Bill Jocelyn on September 22, 2001 at 06:35:17:
Bill: From the www.clevelandclinic.org website, last updated 1/1/01, I got this info: 200 mazes performed there, over 90% success rate, less than 1% mortality.
You need to remember that many of the maze procedures have been performed on some very sick people, with other heart problems (valves, multiple bypasses, etc).
Would the mortality rate be the same for these folks if they had not had the maze? Perhaps they might have died because of complications of the other procedures. AND, perhaps the mortality rate would have been GREATER, had they not received the maze,and continued in AF. The point being, this is a very low mortality rate for all mazes.There have been many more mazes this year at the CC. I believe 3 contributors on this board are to be there for surgery next week, another had his last week, and there were at least 8 during about a 10-14 day period last January when I was there.
Dr. Millar at LDS Hospital has done over 150, Dr. Cox and his numerous associates have done hundreds.
The success rate just keeps getting better and better,and the risks smaller.I believe Ed Wehan was the mazer who posted info he got from Dr. McCarthy about the maze mortality rate for those patients who suffered no other heart problems than AFib, being 1 out of 500. That is less than .2 of
one percent! The success rate for Lone Afib mazers, I believe is around 95%.
As to why "everyone is not having it done", I believe the answer is uninformed doctors, doctors who might not want to lose patients (a "cured" patient is no longer a patient-this should be attractive to doctors in a National health plan like in GB, but not in the US), and patients who are frightened by their uniformed doctors.
This board encourages input from all mazers, and those considering the maze, and if there are others out there who have not had good results after at least 6 months post maze, they will benefit others with details of their experiences. I can only remember a post from one or two people who did not benefit from their maze procedure and one of those had a one-of-a-kind, experimental, beating heart maze. A few have had to have pacemakers, some have PACs,PVCs, but have no Afib.I agree with you regarding LAF, it sucks, and if you have bad side effects from the meds, it's even worse! Then...you may die slowly from something else.
You cannot beat the feeling of being AF-free, post maze!
Good luck!