Professpr Ali Khoynezhad with Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, US answers question from the press at the meeting.[Photo by Shan Juan/chinadaily.com.cn]

A widespread lack of collaboration between the surgical and internal medicine departments at Chinese hospitals makes it difficult for patients with irregular heart beats to receive the best available medical treatment, top heart specialists said.

Experts delivered the message at a symposium on a minimally invasive surgical procedure known as mini-maze that is used to treat atrial fibrillation. Irregular and rapid heart rates, the hallmarks of atrial fibrillation, can increase the risk of stroke, heart failure and other heart-related complications, medical experts said.

The meeting was organized by the First Affiliated Hospital with Nanjing Medical University, Jiangsu province Hospital in Nanjing, capital city of east Jiangsu province.

China has about 10 million patients needing treatment for atrial fibrillation and the disease is on quick rise in the rapidly aging country, said Shao Yongfeng, head of the hospital's department of cardiac surgery.

The risk increases with age. About 1 percent of those aged 60 and older have the disease, and the number rises to 10 percent for those aged 75 and older, he said.

Meng Xu, a well-known cardiologist at Anzhen Hospital in Beijing, said the number of patients with the disease may increase dramatically over the next 40 years because of China's rapidly aging population.

Worldwide, the mini-maze surgical procedure has been widely used to cure atrial fibrillation and treat patients with a history of the cerebral infarction, an ischemic stroke that results from a blockage in the blood vessels supplying blood to the brain, Shao said.

"It's safe and effective for the patients," he said.

However, in China, a majority of the atrial fibrillation patents are referred to internal medicine departments that recommend radio-frequency ablation, a nonsurgical procedure used to treat some types of rapid heart beating.

"Only 3 percent of the Chinese patients would land the mini-maze, which is a more efficient cure," Meng said.

Ali Khoynezhad, a heart surgeon at the famed Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, said patients at his hospital are evaluated jointly by physicians of both the surgical and the internal medicine departments. More than 30 percent of the atrial fibrillation patients typically receive the mini-maze, he said.

Meng said financial concerns are another barrier for a wider use of the operation in China, as the surgery is currently not covered by public insurance policies. Few Chinese buy commercial health insurance policies that might cover the surgery.