Surgical epicardial left atrial appendage closure:A true alternative.

Left atrial appendage closure was originally described by Madden in 1949 who was the first to perform appendix amputation. This was a very invasive procedure with poor outcome, but preformed for stroke prevention. Much later, it was James Cox whom described the Cox-Maze procedure, which included multiple incisions to create a maze like pathway for the electrical impulse to go undisturbed from the sinus node down to the atrio-ventricular node. Since then cardiac surgeons stopped focusing on the left atrial appendage and went on about seemingly more important things. Only with the advent of catheter based options for stand alone left atrial appendage closure did the interest in the field light up again.