Posted on 03/24/2012 6:02:18 PM PDT by calex59
Has anyone had, or knows someone who has had, ablation treatment for Afib?
Have u tried Multaq? It's a new, very effective anti-arythmic.
Also, ensure the physician/electrophysiogist does at least 70 of these procedures per year. Statistically much better results with surgeon who does more than 70
Cleveland Clinic has great reputation but there is also a surgeon in Oklahoma City / Norman, OK associated with OU who is going it via a new access route who is having great success
Tool luck
I hope it treats tightly-woundedness too.
I had the opportunity as a nursing student to observe an A-Fib atrial ablation. It was fascinating. There is a whole team to oversee the care of the patient.
There is so much equipment in the procedure room to tract the patient and to assist the doctor that it looks like a Best Buy store gone bad. The procedure took about 4 hours to complete. I was surprised how quickly the patient came out of the anesthetic after it was all over. The guy was up and talking to the doctor about 15 minutes after we were done.
The patient has to lie flat and be still for several hours after the procedure to ensure that the femoral arteries don’t start bleeding. But that is the same issue when you have an angioplasty.
The second was my wife and last summer the effects she was experiancing from her heart abnormalities was very bad and caused problems in almost every activity. Her doctor highly recommended the procedure and after it was scheduled the insurance company denied it claiming drug therapy was not fully explored.we appealed the decision and at the same time her prescription was changed the new drug did improve her symptom's but not completely. We are still waiting for the results of the appeal. I recommend your doctor get the insurance approval asap.
I talked to a surgeon recently and he said there’s controversy about whether MAZE works. I wouldn’t even think about it unless you’re getting your chest opened for something else.
Also my mother has atrial fib. I wish that she would have the procedure so she could go off of coumadin and be able to do more.
Thanks for all the replies. I have to go now, am late for a meeting with a friend. I think I have found out what I want to know, that coupled with what one friend told me(he said if my doc wouldn’t do authorize it get one who would)has made me decide to push for it. FReepers are the greatest and have much knowledge they are willing to share. God bless you all. Thanks again. Bye for now.
I had cardio ablation to resolve a SVT problem. It was very interesting experience. Laying on a table surrounded by computer monitors your put half out but aware. They insert through a vein in your upper thigh then wind their way to the inside of you heart. It is a little uncomfotable but not painful. On mine they spent some time mapping out the heart to find the place to burn. They induced the SVT (minor) to confirm the spot then burned it. After the burn they injected large dose of adrenalin to stimulate the heart and trigger any episode to prove the burn was good. That was the hardest part. Strapped down flooded with adrenalin sweating, heart racing and creating sensations like your running a hard mile. Once they are satisfied burn works they bring you down remove the probes and close the small incision. Several times during the procedure the affects to the drugs started wearing off and I would notify the nurse per instruction that I was starting to give a shit about what was going on and she would juice me a little more.
Post op was mostly concerned with the incision not bleeding or infecting and no exercise to let the heart recover. After a couple weeks can return slowly to normal exercise routines . ( I road bike so was eager to get back on the bike)
Mechanically things were good, The head in another story. It is easy to mind lock on the heart for every bobble and trigger anxiety. Took me a while to get my head strait about what happened and where my body was now at.
The SVT has never recurred but I do have increased occurrences of irregular beats ( pre beats sometimes called) These as you probably know even if not life threatening are troubling when they increase in frequency. I regular see my cardioologist and had had a harness on a couple of times with the prebeats so still under observation for those. Had to concede to a beta blocker which really slows down the cycling in the hills but being alive is a good thing...
All in all it was a strange experience with more dimensions than I originally contemplated but stoping the heart from randomly racing off to over 220 bpm for no reason was worth it.
hope this helps
My dad had the ablation therapy, but it didn’t work quite right. He needed a valve replaced and a quadruple bypass graft, so while they were in there they did the MAZE as well. He took a while to recover, but he’s gotten the complete overhaul, good for another 50 thousand miles, I hope.
I was wrong. My friend was scheduled to have it done, and then he noticed a correlation between the arthymia and his alcohol consumption. Reducing his martinis from 9-11 a week to 2 a week completely eliminated the problem. His situation is probably very atypical.
My mother was to have it but wasn’t stable enough. As others have stated relatively low risk, especially when you consider life time warfrin or prodaxa.
My friend had it done and it was wonderful for her. She was going to the emergency room often - they could knock her heart back into rhythm with meds - it was terrifying.
She met with the specialist once, went in the hospital one morning and was out by the afternoon. She only had a headache from the meds.
After the ablation, all that fear and worry is gone and her heart has been perfect for several years. She has had no side effects.
I have Afib,Let me know how you make out. Sick of the Coumadin and Digoxin and still get the flutters.
That said, I seem to have fixed my periodic AF by staying well hydrated.
I had AFib in 2005. I converted back chemically, but the plan WAS to Cardiovert me. Compared to Ablation, Cardioversion is SCARY.
Basically, they kill you by stopping your heart... wait 30 seconds. . .then try to jump-start you using the usual paddles. 1 time in 20, you stay dead.
Hope it goes well for you....
My son had the ablation done in late January. A doctor had recommended it when he was 18, but he refused to have it done. He has been an RN, a combat medic and a SWAT team medic. It finally became too much of an issue (passing out) and he had the procedure done. The procedure itself was a success but it turns out the afib was in part his body compensating for neurocardiac syncope which is still resisting any kind of resolution.
Different doctors have different success rates with the procedure. Look for a rock star doctor and God bless.
That’s strange.
As a surgeon I think the best out there for a fib is Hansen robots device.brain child of Fred Moll who started Intuitive Surgery ..Da Vinci robots..google it.
As a surgeon I think the best out there for a fib is Hansen robots device.brain child of Fred Moll who started Intuitive Surgery ..Da Vinci robots..google it.
As a surgeon I think the best out there for a fib is Hansen robots device.brain child of Fred Moll who started Intuitive Surgery ..Da Vinci robots..google it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.