Intermediate to Long-Term Results of Radiofrequency Modified Maze Procedure as an Adjunct to Open-Heart Surgery

The RF modified Maze procedure abolishes AF in the majority of patients with structural heart disease and longstanding permanent AF. Postoperative rhythm was not predictive of all-cause mortality, cardiac mortality, and stroke, neither in the whole group nor in the subgroups defined by preoperative left ventricular ejection fraction and New York Heart Association class. The stroke rate was very low in this group with longstanding AF.