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Ablation?
- by Roys
- 2015-03-13 07:03:44
- General Posting
- 812 views
- 1 comments
Hi
Why would my EP suggest the ablation of both the S.A Node and the A.V Node for occasional AF. Would the ablation of the S.A Node stop AF in the Atrial? I thought that ablation in the ventricle was all that was required.
Cheers Roy
1 Comments
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by golden_snitch - 2015-03-14 02:03:37
An ablation of the SA node does not make any difference to AF. Sinus node ablations are only, and very rarely performed in patients with a permanent sinus tachycardia/very bad case of inappropriate sinus tachycardia. Ablating the sinus node can only, if at all, treat sinus tachycardia, nothing else.
The AV-node ablation does NOT stop the Afib, either. It only stops the AV-node from "transmitting" a very irregular, too fast or too slow rhythm to the ventricles while a person is in Afib. The atria will keep fibrillating, the ventricles will be paced at an appropriate rate. The patient will therefore need to stay on a blood thinning medication after the AV-node ablation, but will no longer need any antiarrhythmic drugs.
If an EP suggests ablating both, the SA and AV node, to treat Afib - run away! Seriously, that EP must be nuts and lack even a very basic understanding of the electrical conduction system of the heart.