Rhythm Control - Surgical Ablation for AF |
|
Maintaining your heart in normal rhythm: Once you are back in normal rhythm, there are treatments to keep you in rhythm. These may include medical therapy with anti-arrhythmic medications or a procedure such as catheter ablation, surgical ablation, or device implantation. Surgical Ablation Another way to treat AF is to break the circuit by creating barriers on the outside surface of the heart. The surgical MAZE procedure was used which involved an open-heart procedure to expose the heart so that incisions could be made in the atrial tissue to create scars to disrupt the AF circuit. Today, if a patient is having an open-chest procedure for another medical reason (bypass, or valve replacements), a procedure to create these scars may be done. Now, this procedure is being refined with the use of either radiofrequency waves, microwave energy or cryoablation (freezer-burn) applied to the outside of the heart. |
