The maze operation as a surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation.

In this study we reviewed the history of the surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF). Of the various types, the maze operation has become nowadays the most successful surgical treatment of AF with or without concomitant cardiac surgery. We report on our 10-year experience with conventional maze III surgery: 203 patients were operated on without in-hospital mortality and acceptable morbidity. Success defined as the freedom of AF and other supraventricular arrhythmias was 80.1% for the patients with lone AF and 64.5% for the patients with concomitant AF after a mean of 4 years after surgery. We conclude that despite the complexity of the maze III operation this approach remains the golden standard from which future surgical and other ablative treatments of AF will be derived.