Post PM ablation

Have just got home from another stay in hospital as my heart rate kept going up and getting arrhythmias. It is early days (done 16/2) but it was agreed that things were not right. Lots of tweaking but still not right, back in on Monday when head technician is in. Another ablation was mentioned and I was interested if anyone has had to have the same thing done and what their out come was. So desperate to feel better.
Totally agree with comments in recent messages re. standardisation of follow up. I had to back in via A+E as I had been 'discharged' form where I had had the op.
Jane

3 Comments

different in the UK

by Theknotguy - 2015-02-28 10:02:09

I bring up that it is different in the UK from the States. I'll tell you what they did for me then ask if it's possible in the UK. Don't know - maybe DonR will chime in?

For me, they put in the PM because my heart stopped. Post PM I went into some weird arrhythmias as well as afib with RVR. Doctors tried rhythm control but when that didn't work went for rate control. Most of my problems were in the first few months. After that heart settled down and things got better. But those first few months were trying. Anyway...

Rate control. They give you drugs to slow down the heart to help prevent arrhythmias, then use the PM to bring the heart rate up to a liveable level. Doesn't stop the arrhyuthmias but does bring everything into a more controlled situation.

Question for you - is that what your heart doctors are trying to do? i.e. rate control? At least it's a question to ask.

My EP has held off on ablation for me because he's indicated my type of afib may not respond well to an ablation. In the meantime, the drug regimen plus my PM programming has helped reduce number of afib sessions.

I understand about your not feeling good. Hated it when I went through it. Hope they can find some relief for you soon.

Thanks

by Jane S - 2015-02-28 11:02:39

Thank you both, will get my questions ready. Inga you have been through it, had not realised that when I got my ablation the technique was so new, maybe that's why some damage was done.
Very impressed how knowledgeable people are, keep hoping the pacemaker helps my memory as I have been reading up but it is a complicated subject.
Roll on Monday.
Jane x

SVT ablation

by golden_snitch - 2015-02-28 11:02:50

Hi!

Jane, what kind of arrhythmias are you having? From your first post and your profile info I get that it's some kind of SVT.

If it's still SVT, I'd give an ablation another try. You have had only one so far, and that was 16 years ago. A LOT has changed since then. Ablation techniques and equipment have become much more advanced, so today one can ablate most atrial tachycardias successfully - even those that are a bit tricky -, and in a much shorter time than 16 years ago.

I had my first six ablations between 1999 - 2001, and then another two ablations in 2012. The first ones took between three and ten hours, the ones in 2012 less than two hours, one of them just 45 minutes. Five of my ablations were performed after I had the pacemaker put in. It's not that my tachy came back again and again, but new spots kept popping up. Had permanent sinus node reentry tachycardia, AVNRT, three different ectopic atrial tachys, atrial flutter and junctional tachycardia.

Theknotguy, rhythm and/or rate control is a concept that applies to Afib only. For other kinds of atrial tachy, ablation is the therapy of first choice. No need to give drugs a try. Atrial flutter and most other types of atrial tachy can be ablated successfully in more than 90% of all cases, some even have success rates higher than 95%. If a patient does not agree to have an ablation, one can of course try drugs, but then the aim is rhythm control, not rate control; you try to stop the atrial tachy from kicking in, you don't try to just slow it down.

Inga

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