I had the same procedure done about a year ago. It's not very invasive, not very risky, and has a very high success rate. I'm not sure I'd even call it surgery as the only cutting they do is nicking a few arteries so they can insert catheters. Atrial flutter is basically a circular electrical pattern that forms inside the atrium of the heart. What they do is run some catheters in, find the right spot, and then use an RF probe to burn one row of cells, shutting down the circuit (just like cutting a wire). Barry's docs are perhaps more conservative than mine were. They sent me home the same day and I was able to work the next day. It's really that easy. I just know he'll be fine. -- Andy Oppel, N6AJO At 12:11 PM 6/11/2004, you wrote:

Barry Shelley had surgery today to fix the atrial flutter. It took about 2 hours. He is now out of surgery and reportedly doing well.

Dave K1ZZ