The Cox maze III procedure has equivalent operative risk and long-term efficacy in patients undergoing both lone operations and concomitant procedures. The Cox maze III procedure remains the standard against which alternative procedures for atrial fibrillation must be judged.

Differences in baseline characteristics in patients with increasing severities of PVR may increase the risk of this complication. Despite these differences, multivariable analysis demonstrated that both mild and moderate/severe PVR predicted higher 1-year mortality.

Objectives The Cox-Maze III procedure(CMP) achieved high cure rates and became the surgical gold standard for the treatment of atrial fibrillation(AF). Due to its invasiveness, a more simplified ablation-assisted procedure(CMP-IV) has been performed at our institution since January, 2002. The study examined multiple preoperative and perioperative variables to determine predictors of late recurrence. Methods Data were collected prospectively on 282 patients who underwent the CMP-IV from January 2002 through December 2009. Forty-two percent of patients had paroxysmal and 58% had either persistent or long-standing persistent AF. All patients were available for follow-up. Follow-up included ECGs in all patients. Since 2006, 24 hour holter monitoring was obtained in 94% of patients at 3, 6 and 12 months. Data were analyzed by logistic regression analysis at 12 months with 13 preoperative and perioperative variables used as co-variants. Results Sixty-six percent of patients had a concomitant procedure. Following an ablation-assisted CMP, the freedom from AF was 89%, 93%, and 89% at 3, 6, and 12 months, respectively. The freedom from both AF and antiarrhythmic drugs was 63%, 79%, and 78% at 3, 6, and 12 months. The risk factors for AF recurrence at one year were enlarged left atrial(LA) diameter(p=0.027), failure to isolate the entire posterior left atrium(p=0.022), and early atrial tachyarrhythmias (ATAs)(p=0.010). Conclusions The CMP-IV has a high success rate at one year, even with improved follow-up and stricter definitions of failure. In patients with large LA, there may be a need for more extensive size reduction or expanded lesion sets.

OBJECTIVE The Cox-Maze IV procedure (CMPIV) has been established as the gold standard for surgical ablation, however late outcomes using current consensus definitions of treatment failure have not been well described. In order to compare to reported outcomes of catheter-based ablation, we report our institutional outcomes of patients who underwent a left-sided or biatrial CMPIV at five years of follow up. METHODS Between January 2002 and September 2014, data were collected prospectively on 576 patients with AF who underwent a CMPIV(n= 532) or left-sided CMPIV(n= 44). Perioperative variables and long-term freedom from AF on and off AADs were compared in multiple subgroups. RESULTS Follow up at any time point was 89%. At five years, overall freedom from AF was 78% (93/119) and freedom from AF off AADs was 66% (77/177). There were no differences in freedom from AF on or off AADs at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years between patients with paroxysmal AF(n=204) and patients with persistent/long-standing persistent AF(n=305), or between those who underwent stand-alone and those who received a concomitant CMP. Duration of preoperative AF and hospital length of stay were the best predictors of failure at 5 years. CONCLUSIONS The outcomes of the CMPIV remain good at late follow up. The type of preoperative AF or the addition of a concomitant procedure did not affect late success. The results of the CMPIV remain superior to those reported for catheter ablation and other forms of surgical AF ablation, especially for patients with persistent or long-standing AF.

Bipolar radiofrequency energy can produce permanent transmural linear lesions on the beating heart. Online measurement of tissue conductance reliably predicted lesion transmurality. This new technology may enable surgeons to perform a curative minimally invasive operation for atrial fibrillation on the beating heart.

Background The Cox-Maze procedure (CMP) has achieved high success rates in the therapy of atrial fibrillation (AF) while becoming progressively less invasive. This report evaluates our experience with the CMP in the treatment of lone AF over two decades and compares the original cut-and-sew CMP-III to the ablation-assisted CMP-IV, which uses bipolar radiofrequency and cryoenergy to create the original lesion pattern. Methods and Results Data were collected prospectively on 212 consecutive patients (mean age: 53.5±10.4, 78% males), who underwent a stand-alone CMP from 1992 through 2010. Median duration of preoperative AF was 6 (IQR 2.9–11.5) years, with 48% paroxysmal and 52% persistent or longstanding persistent AF. Univariate analysis with preoperative and perioperative variables used as covariates for the CMP-III (n=112) and the CMP-IV (n=100) was performed. Overall, 30-day mortality was 1.4% with no intraoperative deaths. Freedom from AF was 93% and freedom from AF off antiarrhythmics was 82% at a mean follow-up time of 3.6 ± 3.1 years. Freedom from symptomatic AF at 10 years was 85%. Only one late stroke occurred with 80% of patients being off anticoagulation. The less invasive CMP-IV had significantly shorter cross-clamp times (41±13 vs. 92±26 minutes, p<0.001) while achieving high success rates with 90% freedom from AF and 84% freedom from AF off antiarrhythmics at 2 years. Conclusions The CMP, while simplified and shortened by alternative energy sources, has excellent results even with improved follow-up and stricter definition of failure.

Background Tricuspid regurgitation (TR) and right ventricular (RV) dysfunction adversely affect outcomes in patients with heart failure or mitral valve disease, but their impact on outcomes in patients with aortic stenosis (AS) treated with transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has not been well characterized. Methods and Results Among 542 patients with symptomatic AS treated in the PARTNER II trial (inoperable cohort) with a SAPIEN or SAPIEN XT valve via a transfemoral approach, baseline TR severity, right atrial (RA) and RV size, and RV function were evaluated by echocardiography according to established guidelines. One-year mortality was 16.9%, 17.2%, 32.6%, and 61.1% for patients with no/trace (n=167), mild (n=205), moderate (n=117), and severe (n=18) TR, respectively (p<0.001). Increasing severity of RV dysfunction as well as RA and RV enlargement were also associated with increased mortality (p<0.001). After multivariable adjustment, severe TR (HR 3.20, 95% CI 1.50–6.82, p=0.003) and moderate TR (HR 1.60, 95% CI 1.02–2.52, p=0.042) remained associated with increased mortality as did RA and RV enlargement, but not RV dysfunction. There was an interaction between TR and mitral regurgitation severity (p=0.04); the increased hazard of death associated with moderate/severe TR only occurred in those with no/trace/mild mitral regurgitation. Conclusions In inoperable patients treated with TAVR, moderate or severe TR and right heart enlargement are independently associated with increased 1-year mortality, however the association between moderate or severe TR and an increased hazard of death was only found in those with minimal MR at baseline. These findings may improve our assessment of anticipated benefit from TAVR and support the need for future studies on TR and the right heart, including whether concomitant treatment of TR in operable but high risk patients with AS is warranted. Clinical Trial Registration URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01314313.

Radial artery patency is sensitive to both target location and proximal target stenosis. Selective use of the radial artery to targets of the left anterior descending and circumflex distributions remains encouraging. Radial artery grafts to targets of the right coronary artery or those with moderate stenosis appear to be at particularly high risk of failure.