Minimally Invasive Maze Surgery
Pioneering Cure for Atrial Fibrillation in the Mountain West
Remember the moment before you were diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, the moment before you felt your first symptom, remember the last time you took a breath without worrying about congestive heart failure or the risk of having a stroke? Remember the last day before you started taking Coumadin, antiarrhythmics or rate management drugs? Those moments aren't ghostly memories of a time before diagnosis; they may be a future you can look forward to.
Medical science has come along way in the last few years. If you've been told medications are the only solution for atrial fibrillation, it is time for you to catch up. If you think heart surgery requires your ribs to be cracked, your chest to be opened, and your heart to be stopped, catch up. If you believe that there is no cure for atrial fibrillation and that you may spend the rest of your life feeling like you do right now, change your mind.
Dr. David Affleck of Western Cardiovascular Associates changes the minds of atrial fibrillation patients and their loved ones every day. By surgically restructuring and remodeling the pathways of irregular electrical impulses in the heart that cause atrial fibrillation, patients can go back to that time before…before coumadin. Before INR checks. Before the hassles of living with afib. Whether you live in Salt Lake City, Ogden, or Utah Valley, or anywhere in the country, contact Western Cardiovascular Associates online or call us at 801-743-4750 today. Change your mind, cure your heart.
Dr. David Affleck is a pioneer in minimally invasive closed chest surgical ablation procedures. These procedures (the mini-maze) have been shown to cure atrial fibrillation in more than 90% of his surgical patients. For patients with permanent-consistent atrial fibrillation, the success rate is 70%, which is 20% higher than other medical facilities offering similar surgical procedures.
Dr. Affleck can cure more patients with atrial fibrillation because he has a unique perspective when it comes to the surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation. Dr. Affleck trained at Washington University in St. Louis where the Maze procedure was developed. He specializes in the surgical treatment of arrythmias both "closed chest" as well as open heart approaches. Dr. Affleck trains other surgeons in the mini-maze technique, and he has performed this procedure on more patients than any other surgeon in the western United States.
Image courtesy of Atricure, Inc.