ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The Cox maze-III procedure is considered as the most effective surgical treatment for atrial fibrillation. Because this procedure takes a long time and it complicates the concomitant cardiac surgery, some surgeons perform a left atrial maze procedure or pulmonary vein isolation only to reduce the operation time. This study was performed to evaluate how the modified procedures, with using cut-and-sew techniques, can influence the treatment of atrial fibrillation. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Between Feb 1999 and June 2005, 40 patients (17 males and 23 females) with organic heart disease and atrial fibrillation underwent the Cox maze-III procedure (23), the left atrial maze procedure (10) or pulmonary vein isolation (7). The cut-an-sew technique was used to ablate the atrial wall, but cryoablation was used instead of the cut-and-sew technique for the coronary sinus and the inferior wall between the pulmonary vein and the mitral annulus. RESULT: After a mean follow-up period of 50.0+/-21.6 months, all (100%) of the 23 patients who underwent the Cox maze-III procedure had regular sinus or atrial rhythm conversion, and 7 (70%) of 10 with a left atrial maze procedure and 4 (57.1%) of 7 with pulmonary vein isolation had regular sinus or atrial rhythm conversion (p=0.002). CONCLUSION: To obtain a high conversion rate from atrial fibrillation to a regular sinus rhythm or a regular atrial rhythm, the standard Cox maze-III procedure should be performed in both atria. The limited modified procedures like the left atrial maze procedure or pulmonary vein isolation may reduce the cure rate of atrial fibrillation.
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Atrial Fibrillation , Coronary Sinus , Cryosurgery , Follow-Up Studies , Heart Diseases , Pulmonary Veins , Thoracic Surgery , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: For resection of esophageal cancer, esophagogastrostomy caused serous multiple complications such as leakage of anastomosis site, stenosis, recurrence of cancer, etc. Especially, accoding to the anastomosis site of esophagogastrostomy, patients in post operation state was felt various subjective symptom, multiple complications and longer hospital periods, etc. Therefore, there was a demand for comparison and analysis of complication between cervical and thoracic esophagogastrostomy. MATERIAL AND METHOD: From January 1995 to May 1999, 55patients with esophageal cancer underwent cervical esophagogastrostomy(23patients) or thoracic esophagogastrostomy(32patients). Cancer was grouped according to the postoperative staging(I--5pt, II--27pt, III--23pt) by the AJCC classification and location: upper thoracic(3pt), middle(34pt) and lower(18pt). Cancer was mostly squamous cell carcinoma except 2 adenocarcinoma. Fifty five patients were male with average age of 59 years for cervical anastomosis and 55 years for thoracic anastomosis. The staple anastomosis was done in one cervical anastomosis patient and 23 thoracic anastomosis patients. RESULT: There was one mortality from cervical anastomosis and two from thoracic anastomosis. Fourty six complications(respiratory and digestive system, etc..) occurred in 15cervical anastomosis patients and 37 complication in 13thoracic anastomosis patients. In 23cervical esophagogastrostomy patients, 11patients had moderate to severe dysphagea during swallowing. However, only 2thoracic anastomosis patients experienced this dysphagea. The postoperative hospital stay was above 20days in 18 cervical anastomosis patients, and in 13thoracic anastomosis patients. CONCLUSION: Among esophageal tumor cases, respiratory, digestive, infection and other complications did occur after esophagogastric anastomosis. Particularly, mortality rate secondary to respiratory complication was high. Anastomotic leakage was more frequent in manual anastomosis than in staple anastomosis, and was also seen more frequently among cervical anastomosis than among thoracic anastomosis. In the cases of cervical anastomosis, the patients complained more of dysphagea while their hospital stays were significantly long.