3 in one surgery

[laurad37]

OK so I just spoke to the doctors office about that whole tricuspid valve report of the echo. The plan is to replace the Pulmonary Valve, repair the Tricuspid using a Anuulplasty ring and do an ablation on the arrythmias. My question is does a Maze procedure just reroute your electrical system? whereas an ablation kills the tissue where the arrythmias are? Is it the same outcome? I just started hearing about this maze procedure.

 

[Cooker]

Good question .... I would also like to know .... I had ablation and it has worked so far (2006)

 

[kfay]

I have had both. In my case, the ablation destroyed the actual "pathway" that my electrical impluse was traveling on to cause my rhythm problem. The maze, which is a very intricate pattern that they cut or use cyrotherapy on the outside of the heart, was, in my case, used to try and prevent me from developing a-fib/a-flutter which is very common in my particular congenital heart disease.

Kim

 

[Eva]

I am not sure exactly of the difference, but sure that the maze procedure is to stop/prevent atrial fibrilation.

Good luck

 

[Adrienne]

I'm not totally sure of the difference. However, I was told by my cardiologist that the Maze Procedure is the best. The thing is that a pulmonary vein ablation they do by catheter. A Maze (to my knowledge) is only done when they do OHS (whether minimally invasive or not), so in general, they will not do a Maze unless you are undergoing valve surgery or other OHS.