Usually, medications (drug therapy) are employed for the treatment of arrhythmia. But there are some drug refractory arrhythmias. In such case, we employed some invasive therapy as a second step.

 For the treatment of ‘atrial fibrillation(AF)’, that is one of a kind of heart arrhythmia, there also be some invasive treatment. One arm is ‘catheter ablation’ and another is ‘surgical procedure’. 

 Based on the Japanese Guideline of JCS, the catheter ablation is one of the less invasive treatment and good for lone (without structural heart disease) AF and for ‘paroxysmal’ AF. But for valvular AF (with structural heart disease) and permanent/long-standing AF, the surgical procedure is suitable.

 

 The surgical procedure of  the treatment AF is called ‘maze’ procedure because of it’s incision line on the atrium. The original maze procedure was developed in USA by Prof. Cox at the end of 1980’s. In our hospital, we have developed a simplified, less invasive modified-maze procedure at 1990’s. We have performed this less invasive surgical procedure for long time with some improvement and nowadays AF diminishing rate have been achieved up to 90% with long-term outcomes. These results have been reported in several scientific journals.

 

http://arrhythm.umin.jp/treatment/surgery/simple.html