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Surgical correction under the principle of the Cox-Maze procedure as developed by Dr. James Cox, has been designed to treat people who have chronic atrial fibrillation and had poor results from medications or other types of treatment. Maze procedure treats atrial fibrillation by creating a maze of new electrical pathways for the electrical impulses to travel without diversion through the heart.

In recent years, surgeons have learned to simulate the “cut and sew” technique of the traditional Cox-Maze procedure with the help of the latest energy source technology (radiofrequency, cryo, laser, microwave, and high frequency ultrasound-HiFU). The surgeons are now able to ablate the atrium in open-heart procedures, beating heart procedures, and closed chest endoscopic procedures without having to make any incisions into the heart chambers.

The ablation can be done on the beating heart before the patient is placed on the heart-lung machine for their major cardiac procedure. By doing this, the patient will be without the added risk of an additional invasive procedure. The long-term success rate of this approach of surgical ablation for atrial fibrillation is in the 80% range.

Currently, an ideal procedure is a combination of mitral valve repair and surgical ablation for atrial fibrillation, the patient can then have a completely repaired heart valve and the heart back in normal rhythm. The beneficial outcome of this is a patient with a life long repaired valve and also free from the need of anticoagulation therapy for atrial fibrillation. In this regard, the ablation option has markedly improved outlook and long-term quality of life in this important patient population.

Downstate Surgical Ablation Program for Atrial Fibrillation in combination with other cardiac procedures began in mid 2007. We plan to develop a new program for lone atrial fibrillation ablation under closed chest endoscopic (thoracoscopic) techniques. This new program will be partnered with the Cardiac Electrophysiology Program at SUNY Downstate. There are several evolving technologies and skill sets that are being developed to accomplish this task, and we are committed in excellence and are diligent in evaluating each one of them.

To Contact Us:

Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery
450 Clarkson Avenue, Box 40
Brooklyn, New York 11203
Tel: 718-270-1981 | Fax: 718-270-3843