Av nodal ablation

Not sure where to start. I have an extensive history of svt and nothing has worked to clam it down. My doctor said he is going to do an av nodal ablation. However he said he was just going to ablate a small “piece” of it. He said this brings a risk of needing a pacemaker. He said I might need 2 ablations at separate times so my heart doesn’t end up going too slow. I’ve  searched high and low for this procedure and all I come across is the av node being ablated completely with pacemaker implantation.  Either way I am ok if I need a pacemaker. 

My episodes of svt are happening 1-2 times a month and with each episode I am going unconscious after hours of being in svt. Nothing but time (more then 24 hours) converts my episodes. So I am worried about the damage this is causing my heart. In one year my ejection fraction has gone down 10%. 

Has anyone ever had an av node ablation? I’m a little nervous about it but if it means no more episodes of unconsciousness then I’m ok with that. 

1 Comments

ablation

by Alma Annie - 2017-11-05 18:10:34

I can only tell you about my sinus node ablation.  Among other heart problems (not heart disease) my heart rate would soar to 200, so an ablation was suggested.  During the procedure my heartrate plummeted to 23 so EP stopped after only ablating a 'small ' bit, as he wanted to avoid having me have a pacemaker. My heart rate continued to fluctuate; he would not let me home, then 2 days later he put in a pacemaker anyway.   I continued to have problems for the next year, mainly chest pain, so another ablation was suggested in the hope it would solve problems.  As I had the pm EP could ablate as much as he wanted, and he virtually destroyed the sinus node.  I have had no problems since.  It was the best thing he did.   Hope this helps.

Alma Annie.

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