Surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation—what have we learned?

Numerous challenges were overcome to develop an effective approach to the surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF), the end result of which was the Cox-maze III procedure (1). Evaluation of outcomes following this procedure was facilitated by the consistency in lesion sets and guaranteed transmurality. Furthermore, since its inception, it has served as the foundation for the further development and evolution of contemporary techniques for surgical ablation of AF.