Patients & Family

Treating AFib

Surgical ablation

Surgical ablation can be a very effective method for treatment of AFib. However, it can be more disruptive to the body than other ablation procedures as it requires an incision be made in the chest to access the heart.

Surgical ablation procedures usually incorporate a method known as the Cox-Maze Procedure in which incisions are made in the heart tissue (or use an energy source) to destroy the dysfunctional areas of the heart.

Patients may be placed on a heart bypass machine during the procedure. Surgical ablation procedures that use energy sources are quite like catheter ablation in that they use high-frequency energies to destroy heart tissue. In some of these procedures, it is not necessary to place the patient on a heart bypass machine. This type of procedure is known as‘off-pump’ heart surgery