Cardiac Surgery for Arrhythmias

Surgical treatment for cardiac arrhythmias was initiated in 1968 with the first successful surgical division of an accessory atrioventricular connection for the Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome. Subsequent surgical procedures were the left atrial isolation procedure and the right atrial isolation procedure for the automatic atrial tachycardias, corridor procedure and the Maze procedure, developed by James Cox, to cure atrial fibrillation. More, the right ventricular disconnection for arrhythmogenic right ventricular tachycardia, the encircling endocardial ventriculotomy, transitional procedures and the Dor procedure for ischemic ventricular tachycardia should be mentioned. Nowadays, due to the significant improvements of the endovascular percutaneous ablations, the Maze IV, thoracoscopic surgical pulmonary isolation and the Dor procedure remain the most performed surgical interventions. The last four decades of research in the field of cardiac arrhythmia surgery provided the basis and source of knowledge for the development of these transcatheter techniques and hybrid approaches. Alberto Pozzoli1, Ottavio Alfieri1, Paolo Della Bella2 and Patrizio Mazzone2* 1Department of Heart Surgery, San Raffaele University Hospital, Italy 2Department of Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology Laboratories, San Raffaele University Hospital, Italy