Dr. James Cox introduced the Cox-maze surgical operation for atrial fibrillation in 1987, later modified to Cox-maze III also known as the "cut and sew" maze. It is highly successful in restoring sinus rhythm, with 90-96 % being free from atrial fibrillation at a mean follow-up of 5.4 years. Due to its complexity and technical difficulty the procedure has not been widely adopted. Mini invasive procedures for pulmonary vein isolation have been developed and can now be performed either through mini thoracotomies or using totally thoracoscopic approach. These procedures also hold the advantage of left atrial appendage excision or exclusion. The thoracoscopic maze ablation has shown promising results in small studies in patients with recurrence of atrial fibrillation after earlier catheter based radiofrequency ablation, after a mean follow-up of 11 months 84 % of the patients remain in sinus rhythm. However long-term results are still unknown. The procedure still needs to be compared head to head with catheter based radiofrequency ablation before it should be offered as a standard treatment of atrial fibrillation.