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Sustained Idiopathic Left VT

First of all, I am so glad that a site like this exists, I appreciate any and all feedback!! I am a 22 year old female. I have a structurally normal heart (no holes, etc.) I have had PVC's ever since I can remember/was born with them and a heart murmur. I finally did a heart rate monitor last year and found out I was in trigenimy (PVC's every third heart beat) and then shortly after that bigenimy. I did a Cather Ablation in March 2014, the PVC's seemed to "disappear" for maybe a week. Did another heart rate monitor/EKG's and found out the PVC's were back and at the same amount that they were before the surgery (every third heart beat). They say that the type of VT I have is not life threatening/can not cause cardiac arrest. They gave me three options 1. Continue doing the Cather Ablation until it works 2. Do nothing 3. Go on medication- they offered three types Metoprolol, Diltiazem or Verapamil. They said if I did nothing the most likely thing that would happen is that I might have some heart damage (they were not very clear on this) but it was not life threatening. They strongly recommended doing a Cather Ablation again and I am willing to try but in the instance of another failure I am wondering if anyone has any experience with these types of drugs/situation, which works best? I do eventually want to have kids so if I'm going to stay on one of the drugs I would like to know if any of them effect having children (I heard Metoprolol can cause problems with this). How many times is it recommended to have a Cather Ablation? Thanks much!
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86819 tn?1378947492
I need to c larify something.  I am not a doctor, and what I just said may not apply to you directly.  Be sure to question everything I just said, and talk to your doctor about your options and risks.

Best of luck.
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86819 tn?1378947492
When I  looked into this recently, I discovered that there has been considerable progress made in the last ten years on treating VT's through catheter ablation. But make no mistake, there are definitely risks.

Idiopathic VT's generally fall into one subtype or another and the prevalence of each type in the general population is pretty much known. Most of the common idiopathic types have corresponding ablation strategies that carry high success rate. There is a small number of people who have a type for which an ablation strategy exists, but for which the risk is high and the ablation strategy no so straight forward.

If your VT falls into one of the more simple types, and your doctors agree, i think it is reasonable to weigh the risk of an ablation against the effect the VT has on you. However, if I had a VT that originated at the base of the papillary muscle for instance, and it could only be treated by the use of, say, a large cooled tip catheter, unless the symptoms are very very bad, and could cause me to die without treatment, I definitely think I would pass on this type of ablation. The risks are too great, but for someone who is practically ready to check out.


But if it is not like this, and the type of ablation I need is a "light duty" ablation, then this is where I personally struggle with my own VT, because here it is now safe enough to consider, if I am something of a daredevil.  Here I have a reasonable chance of success and a respectable, low risk, i.e. only about 1% at a respectable health institution of having something really bad happen. Is it worth suffering through some benign symptoms, or should I take that 1% chance that I could be hurt very badly, and take the 90 or 95% chance that I may be free of my VT in exchange for it.

Well, this is a very personal choice. And it is a choice that can really change you for good or bad. Just be careful, and take your time in deciding.  For me, it is just really important to have a good perspective on how things work, what the potential pitfalls are, and so on. I have talked to numerous people about this to get all of the ideas, and advocate that others do this type of thing too. Remember, life is very very special.

One other major factor to consider is whether your VT is a light duty VT on the right side of you heart.  Here the risks may be even lower than on the left side.

Ultimately, you will need to ask your doctor for information about your risks. It is then definitely worth thinking things through.

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