Cardiac Arythmia (PVCs)

[markevans08]

I am an over 50 male and I have had substantial PVCs for at least 15 years. In 2009 I had ablation procedure to attempt to reduce the episodes.  They were only able to ablate areas on the right side of my heart due to equipment limitations.  The quantity of PVCs did decrease about 60% but has since returned to pre ablation levels.  I had a 24 hour Holter monitor a few weeks ago and the results were 105 supraventricular extra systole, 3170 poly ventricular extra systole, 6 bigeminy and 25 trigaminy episodes.  I am scheduling an appointment with a cardiologist for next week but in the meantime would welcome your thoughts

[itdood]

You mentioned these are "poly" PVCs, I'm assuming you mean that they are polymorphic.  That means they are originating from different spots in the ventricles.  Ablation success rates tend to go down when they're polymorphic PVCs.  The EP will go after the spots that he/she thinks are causing the most PVCs, that's when you run into scenarios where they can only get rid of a certain %.

[ireneo]

I agree, that doesn't sound like a particularly high number of ectopics. At least not enough to cause any harm. I'm sure they're annoying though. I also have ectopics (PAC's, PVC's) and tachy bursts that last from a few seconds to 15 minutes. But I live with them, aware of them but they don't stop me.

Is your cardiologist saying you must go in for another ablation? From what I've read, PVC's are extremely difficult to ablate completely. They're so unpredictable and sporadic unlike a tachy that they trigger, the heart will race for awhile and the cardio can find the trouble area. I'd say ask your cardio if you need an ablation and what can they do differently this time to increase your success rate.

[bbxx]

This is what confuses me. I see so many people have an ablation and then have just as many or more pvcs after. I wonder if this is why some dr.s prefer to wait till the numbers are in the ten thousands. My mind is sleepy this morning, but did you say you had 4,000 when you had the first ablation? I am wondering why they did an ablation for that number when I understood the majority of doctors would only ablate 10,000 or more. Maybe I am misunderstanding your post. I will be interested to hear what others say.