See below

[Annaelizabeth]

17y ears ago at the age of 45 I had a mitral valve replacement, St. Jude. Last year AF started, after one ablation I was clear for 8 months, then it started again so I had another ablation. I am now 9 months down the line and keeping my fingers crossed. Would welcome comments from anyone in the same position. Thank you.

[TheStand]

Anaelizabeth, Hi and Welcome to the forum.

I'm happy to hear that your ablation is going well for now. Yours is not an unusual story. Most EPs, when doing an ablation will take the "Less is better" approach knowing that you can go back and ablate more but you can't undo the scarring if too much is ablated.

I don't really want to say that ablation is a shot in the dark but Drs depend on past studies which determined which areas of the Atria are believed to most likely cause of AF. They ablate those areas first. This seems to have worked for you in the short term But there was obviously additional areas that were also causing the attacks. Because many Drs do not want to over ablate this will require a 2nd ablation (often called a touch up) to address the additional pathways.

This can also be a result of the EPs experience at ablations. The more experience that the Dr has usually greatly contributes to their success rate. My EP had done around 2000 ablations over a 10 year period and It is looking like the first ablation has got it done.

I hope that this 2nd one has got all of those areas and you can remain AF Free for a long time.

Again, Welcome to the forum and Please keep us posted on your recovery.

Tim

[Annaelizabeth in reply to TheStand]

Thank you.

[BobD Volunteer]

Hi Anaelizabeth and welcome. I have had three ablation in all, the last being in 2008. After my second I was clear for about 9 months but some of the scars didn't take so had to be repeated. Current studies show that there is a 50% chance of AF returning within 5 years of successful ablation. I'm now five years down the line and although I don't think it is AF I have recently started getting clusters of ectopics and some other odd rhythm problems.so see above. The jury is still out. Regardless of final outcomes the last five years has been worth the previous three years and three ablations so my advice would be to take every day as it comes and rejoice. in any NSR you are lucky enough to get.. As I later found out there are worse things to get than AF!

BobD

[Annaelizabeth in reply to BobD]

Thank you so much for your reply.

[Offcut]

I have had 3 last one a few weeks back which in the end did nothing I am now in af with irregular heart rhythm and had my digoxin doubled? My INr has gone to 3.8