what to ask to an Electrofisiologist before a Caterer or Cryoablation

I hope this helps you.....I am a 35 year old female.  I was diagnosed with afib a year and a half ago.  I was on the heavy hitting drugs like Cardevilol and Amiodarone 300mg per day).  Nothing helped.  I was still having Afib attacks daily.  I was afraid to go swimming or camping, etc with my family because I would worry about dizziness and shortness of breath.  I decided that I wanted a catheter ablation and would not take no for an answer.  I did not have cyro but with ablation with the heat.  they entered my groin.  It has been almost 6 months since my ablation.  NO AFIB!  it was the best decision I ever made.  I am still taking a beta blocker and a blood thinner until my next follow up.  I had an experineced EP do the procedure.  I am unaware on if it will return or not.  I am taking it day by day.

Ask if they will put you to sleep.  I recommend that or heavy sedation.

Hi Guys,

I am a young 75 year old male. I had my abalation 12 weeks ago and it was a successs.

I opted for no sedation, but would not recomend it to the feint hearted. I had mine for Atrial Flutter and had to lie totally still for exactly one hour, they were not happy at first with me opting for this until I said I have had several operations / procedures as it is now called, without an anesthetic.

If your having an ablation for Arial fibulation then this take about 4 hours to complete and you have to have a general anesthetic as it in possible to lay still for that amount of time.

As regards Warfarin, you are kept on this drug for 6 months after as a precaution. I have spoken to many people who have been on Warfarin for many years without any side effects.

I have on a previous discussion described an abalation procedure in full from start to finnish, I beleive you will find it under abalation / Atrial Flutter.

Good luck to every one.

Ken ( my wife is Maxine)

 

Hi there I had an ablation in 2009 it lasted for 5 years , I had a general as I could not tollerate just being sedated .   I had my second ablation 15th sept 2014 , for the first 3 weeks I was fine then i started getting tachycardia , I have had to continue taking my tablets since ,  BUT they also found that I had helibactor pylori they did not give me the drugs for this straight away due to allergies , Only when i ended up in hospital vomiting blood , they decided that the helibactor had caused me ulcers , so I was given the heavy medication for one week , Strangly since I have had this heavy dose of antibiotics , the tachycardia has gone away , so far I have not had any problems with the AF since new year when I finished the tablets . I saw the surgeon today and he feels the helibactor as it is in the blood was preventing the heart from healing , So fingers crossed it dont come back and continues to get better .

iwould also ad that for me the ablation was te bst thing I ever did as it gave me my life back for the  years , and if this ablation does the same , I woul be happto go through it again in another 5 years .

Hey Max I'm not a doctor but I play one on TV. No really, I don't think you have a choice in either heat or cold ablation its up to the doctor and where you issue are in your heart chambers. Both of mine were heat ablation. 

As far as the length of time it will correct your issues, no one knows that answer, I'm 4 months remove from my last proceedure and I can't imagin not being put under. I had a breathing tube and a tee in my thoat so there is no way you could do that without being under. My first one lasted 2.5 years I'm hoping I'm fixed for life but no one really knows, each of us is different in how we heal, its really up to your body

Yea they go in both sides of the groin one for the camera the other side for the tools. But I've also heard of doctors going in thru the rib cage. Your groin heals really fast like 3 days

I have no idea about Warfarin killing rats but I was on it for year before I had the abaltion. I can tell you its the least expensive of the blood thinners and for most of us it works just fine as long as you follow the eating and drinking guide lines.

Ok the cardio guys are the plumbers and the electro guys are the electricians, this is the electicians area for the ablation so I would not expect your cardio guy to be there.

The number of times depends on how your body and heart respond to the proceedure I hear some people only needed one and others like myself need more but I can tell you, you'll notice the difference how you feel a couple of days after the proceedure, it beats feeling week and unable to breath, so if you can afford it done soon. right now I'm back to racing sailboats, playing tennis and working in the yard and I'm 63.

Put your trust in your doctor and nursing team, follow their instructions to the letter. Here in the state its a 36 hour turn around or less, they had me up and walking once they remove the cathiter from your blatter. That reminds me ask for the shortest one they have, trust me shorter is way better on you in the long run. 

I wish you the best of luck, but they have this proceedure down patt. 

 

Main treatment for A.fib is through PVI ( pulmonary vein isolation ) we do these in our lab. Pt is usually put under general anesthesia vs conscious sedation for the reason of comfort and safety. Burning a precise area is difficult enough and moving during procedure can make it dangerous. They go through you groin mostly venous system and cross over your atrium RA-LA, where ur plum. Veins are. You have 4 pulm. Veins and these take some time to burn/ablate/isolate. If in afib during procedure if done right u will convert to NSR (normal sinus rhythm) procedure time varies on a cases by case. Seen them done in little as 2 hrs and as long as 6hrs. Coumadin is needed for a fib, u need and blood thinner to prevent clot formation. If and when back in NSR that will "clot if formed" will sling shoted through ur body... Not good.. So protect yourself. Hope this helps. Btw have u been cardioverted yet?