New Heart Surgery Gives Man Gift of Health

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By KULR Staff

Story Published: Dec 10, 2008 at 10:45 PM MST

Story Updated: Dec 10, 2008 at 10:12 PM MST

BILLINGS - Last year at this time, Heiko Kaas was trying to figure out why his heart rate would soar to 160 beats per minute after taking just a few steps. "It would wear you out. It was like running a marathon constantly the whole day." says Kaas.

After being misdiagnosed with anxiety and sleep disorders, the 46 year old found out he was suffering from atrial fibrillation. "A fibrillation is a discoordination of the heart beat so it beats irregularly. The options usually are meds, a catheter based procedure or surgery." says one of his doctors from Billings Clinic, cardiothoracic surgeon Scott Needham.

In Heiko's case, doctors tried drugs and even attempted to shock his heart back to a normal rhythm. But those weren't enough to keep his heart beating at the right rate. Heiko's doctors at Billings Clinic recommended he undergo a new procedure called mini-maze to correct the mis-firing of the nerves in his heart.

"I was in the hospital for three days and I went back to work about 10 days afterwards." His doctors say with the old Maze method he would have been re-cooperating for months. "The traditional Maze takes 4 hours to do. It's done on bypass, and you have to open up their chest." The new surgery only requires 3 small incisions, mere centimeters in length.

Five months later Heiko had his check up. He is off all his heart medication, and says he feels better than ever. "Great, great, a lot more energy. I feel a lot better. I'm just happy to be here."

Doctors also say the Mini-Maze procedure costs much less than the traditional Maze because by-pass is avoided and time in the hospital is cut by more than half.

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