The surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation

Abstract

The surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) has entered a new era with the development of new tools and advanced techniques. The Maze III operation remains as the gold standard for the surgical treatment of AF. However new energy sources have been adopted for treating this arrhythmia in an effort to reduce the invasiveness and technical concerns with the original procedure. Success rates ranging between 70-98% have been reported using these new techniques. On the other hand interventional cardiologists have further improved their techniques so that percutaneous techniques are competing with minimally invasive ablation techniques for the treatment of drug resistant and symptomatic lone AF. These developments have aroused the interest of cardiac surgeons in AF surgery and have found themselves a wide application. It has been estimated that thirty thousand patients have undergone surgical ablation for AF so far. Inevitably procedure related complications have occurred and caused skepticism by some groups. However surgical ablation has become a widely accepted treatment modality for AF patients undergoing concomitant cardiac surgery. The aim of this text is to make an overall review of the surgical treatment of AF and evaluate the current situation in view of the literature and the personal experience of the authors.