The maze procedure is a surgical procedure to cure atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation is usually treated with medications. Less commonly, radiofrequency ablation combined with pacemaker implantation is used. Implantable cardioverter / defibrillators are now being studied to treat atrial fibrillation.
The maze procedure involves open heart surgery. Atrial fibrillation by itself rarely justifies this. However, patients who need open heart surgery for another reason and also have atrial fibrillation may benefit from this procedure.
The procedure entails making a series of small incisions in the walls of the atria. This helps organize the electrical activity of the atria so that atrial fibrillation does not reoccur. The procedure is so named because the incisions create a maze-like path that the atria's electrical impulse follows to reach the ventricles.
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