New Cure for Atrial Fibrilation

  My husband, who is 55 years old, has atrial fibrilation.  He is
  currently taking medication to control this problem.  I heard of a new
  non-invasive procedure to fix atrial fibrilation on the news this morning
  being done somewhere in Indiana.  I want to say University of Indiana but
  I'm not sure.  Just from the brief description of the procedure it looked
  somewhat similar to an ablation.  Can you give me some more details about
  how the procedure is done?  From what I understand this is a very new
  procedure.
  Thank you very much for your response.

[CCF Cardio MD - MTR]

Dear Shari, thank you for your question.  The procedure I think you're referring to is called the Maze Procedure.  The Maze Procedure was developed by a cardiothoracic surgeon at Washington University in St. Louis.  In this procedure, cryoablation of the atria is performed to form a "maze" of destroyed electrical tissue to prevent propagation of the aberrant electrical impulses that cause afib.  When afib is present, there is chaotic electrical activity of the atria that is transmitted to the ventricles to cause a rapid, irregular pulse.  By forming "blind" channels for the electrical impulses to travel, this procedure is designed to cause the afib to "die out" and not be transmitted to the ventricles.  Results with the surgical Maze Procedure are varied with roughly half of the patients having recurrent afib on follow-up.  The surgical procedure requires open-heart surgery which is invasive and is associated with complications.  Cardiologists who take care of patients with rhythm disorders (called electrophysiologists) have developed techniques to do a similar procedure with catheters.  Catheters with special tips can be used to perform radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of extra conduction pathways in the heart.  RFA is a safe procedure and has been adapted for a catheter-based Maze Procedure.  During this procedure, maze channels are made with RFA rather than with cryosurgery which avoids the risks of surgery and has a much shorter recovery time.  Certain specialized cardiac centers are performing a catheter-based Maze procedure and I haven't seen any results published yet in medical journals.  In my opinion, if this is the procedure that you are referring to, you and your husband would want to be well-informed about the risks and benefits before deciding to go through with it.  Also, he may not even be a candidate for such a procedure.  Therefore, I suggest that you contact the University of Indiana for more information.  As far as I know, we haven't done any catheter-based Maze procedures at the Cleveland Clinic yet.  I hope I've answered your question, but if not, please feel free to write back with more questions.  Information provided in the heart forum is for general purposes only.   Only your physician can provide specific diagnoses and therapies.