Long-term follow-up after the Mini-Maze procedure

The impact of mitral valve surgery combined with maze procedure☆

“…The basic concept has been widely received. Major modifications have supplanted the traditional 'cut-and-sew' with cryoablation [8,18,20], microwave [13] and radiofrequency [6,14], or mini-maze [16,17] and radial maze [15], with the continued goal of durable results in maintaining optimal cardiac function under sinus rhythm by rapid and safe surgical interventions. In this series of patients, we mainly used three kinds of maze procedures in 13 years; Cox-maze III, Kosakai maze and cryo-maze.…”

“…Several researchers have reported that combining maze procedure with mitral valve surgery has advantages with regard to survival [8], cardiac function [9,10], and stroke incidence [11,12]. At the same time, various modifications over the past decade have improved and refined the maze procedure [6,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. This has enabled surgeons to perform maze procedures rapidly and safely.…”

The ambiguous pulmonary venoatrial junction: a new perspective

“…The link between the pulmonary veins and initiation of atrial fibrillation has led to changes in management of this common arrhythmia [1,2]. Non-pharmacologic treatment alternatives using catheter ablation are now widely utilized [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. Ablation procedures depend on imaging to depict the anatomy of the PVAJ.…”