a-fib treatment

[don124]

When treating a-fib with ablation:
Whatis the sucess rate?
What is the mortality rate?
My heart doctor didn't seem to like puntturing thr wall in between.
Is this punture necessary on all procedures.
which procedure is the best of all.

thanks
Don

[claytex]

Dear don:  I have had two ablations. the first 3 years ago for afib and it fixed the afib.  then last year i started having some pvcs and had an ablation for that and now my heart seems to be in perfect rhythm all of the time.  No problems at all.....  Plus I am taking no medications to keep it regular..... The sucess  rate depends on  your personal physical conditon and the skill of the doctor performing the proceedure.  In my case (Im 70 and in good heatlh) the sucess rate was estimated at 80% to fix the afib and about 90 to fix the pvcs. As jerry said the mortality rate is about 1.00% and there again I think it depends on your health and the skill of the EP doing your proceedure.. I am in Texas and went to Heart Hospital of Austin.  They specialize in this type proceedures and I also used an EP who had sucessfully fixed two of my friends( one of them 8 years ago!!), plus he has done about 2000 cathater ablations... Also Jerry was correct about puncturing the wall .. they have to do it when doing an ablation to get to the area needing ablated.  My doc said it was no problem and would heal back in 2-3 weeks.. If your in good physical condition and your convinced you have a really competent and experienced EP Id say go for it.  The only problem I had with the first ablation was that one of my groins was pretty bruised and sore for  2-3 weeks. However it was really nothing.   You just have to kinda be on light duty for 3-4 days.. no heavy lifting etc.. plus you do need to stay on a blood thinner for about 3 months while the heart is healing from the ablation.  I am really glad I had the ablations.  I had the afib for several years and during that time I had about 14-15 electro cardioversions... it was getting old...thats history now..Hope this helps... if you have any questions feel free to contact me... Have a good day Claytex

[Jerry_NJ]

Success rate?  I'd say better than 75% or don't do it.  The success rate is very patient specific.  In my case it is less than 75% (some reasons given in my bio on this sight).

Mortality rate?  Less than 1% is my guess.  But, I'll guess again the rate of some complications is much higher, but still no more than a few %.

Most AFib, I believe, originates in the left atrium.  The catheter entry to the heart is in the right sight, so if work is to be done on the left side, the catheter must gain access through a heart wall dividing the two sides.  This is why AFib ablation is the most complicated and risky.

This is the reason my doctors will not do an ablation on my heart.  The risk/benefit (I am mostly asymptomatic) is too high, and the probability of success is too low.  This is specific to my case and doesn't apply in general.

There are many on this forum who have had successful ablations, perhaps you'll get some specific experience.  Still the answers to your questions depends on your facts, not what someone else has experienced.

Good luck,