Dr. Sydney Gaynor, a world authority in the surgical management of Atrial Fibrillation (AF), and formerly with the Washington University School of Medicine, has visited several of the leading cardiovascular centers in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand for an exchange of views and upgrade of skills in this rapidly evolving field. Dr. Gaynor in his most recent “Asia-tour” (August 15-25, 2007) presented on the latest techniques in AF surgery, sharing the results from various landmark studies and working together with many local surgeons, successfully treating patients with AF using the AtriCure bipolar RF ablation technology.

According to latest estimates, Atrial Fibrillation (AF) affects over 5 million people in the USA alone. At one time, AF was thought to be a harmless annoyance. However, it is now recognized as a very dangerous condition, doubling the risk of death and increasing the chances of suffering a stroke five to seven times compared to a person without AF. In addition, AF may cause congestive heart failure and uncomfortable symptoms related to a rapid heart rate. Mitral Valve disease, hypertension and ischemic heart disease are among they key conditions leading to Atrial Fibrillation.

In 1987 Dr. Jim Cox at Washington University School of Medicine has developed the Cox-Maze procedure which involved several sharp incisions in the left and right atria in order to re-channel the electric pathways, reverting the patient into a normal sinus heart rhythm. The Maze procedure has been very successful with a 98% success rate in "lone atrial fibrillation" patients and a 90% success rate overall in a 10 year follow-up. Post – Maze procedure freedom from stroke has been over 99%, confirming that this procedure if very successful in alleviating the stroke risk associated with AF. However and while proven successful it was a very difficult surgical procedure and therefore performed by only few surgeons.

AtriCure, Inc. - ATRC, NASDAQ) through a series of recent, innovating developments, has made AF surgery a safe and much more simple procedure which can now be performed by many cardiovascular / cardiothoracic surgeons, yet yielding the same success rates as the traditional Cox-Maze procedure. AtriCure’s RF Bipolar technology is used in both, the ablation clamps and ablation pen designs. Furthermore the Bipolar pen can also be used as a quality assurance instrument, as it not only ablates but also enables pacing, which one can use to check and confirm successful conduction block. The pen can also be used in high frequency stimulation mode to map the Ganglionic Plexi, believed as an additional source of AF. Because of the dry ablation technology used by AtriCure, the Ablation Generator is able to continuously calculate and adjusts the required ablation energy for any given tissue thickness and a real-time display informs the surgeon when a transmural lesion has been successfully achieved. Depending on the Patients condition, AtriCure’s leading AF technology allows for both, an open chest / concomitant procedure as well as a closed chest / minimally invasive approach.