Electrophysiologic basis, surgical development, and clinical results of the maze procedure for atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation.

After more than a decade of experimental and clinical research into the basic mechanisms underlying atrial fibrillation, we were able to develop a surgical procedure that appears to cure the arrhythmia. This surgical procedure has been used in 100 patients in our institution and in a total of approximately 130 patients by surgeons in other institutions. The surgical results have been excellent, which indicates the sophisticated electrophysiologic mapping systems are unnecessary and that the results are not surgeon-specific.