There are two types of ablation.... W... - Atrial Fibrillati...
There are two types of ablation.... With and without the balloon... What is the most common? What have people had??? :0)
I think that there are more types than that but am not knowledgeable. Probably depends on what your EP favours.
I don't think I had a balloon, but I did have a laser ablation. This was in Blackpool. It required a thermometer in the oesophagus to ensure there was no risk of burning through from the atrium and creating a fistula. Not easy - or pleasant - to swallow a thermometer, but it was achieved. There was also the advantage of a camera which will have been introduced via the femoral vein, but how they persuaded all the wires and gadgets through two such tiny little punctures I cannot imagine. I opted for this method - had been warned about the thermometer being a challenge - because I felt using a camera would be more selective than just relying on whatever X ray images are routinely generated. Am getting back to normal, 12 days on and feeling fine. And elated that it went ahead so painlessly and without drama.
Jomack, Ablation is really the wrong word but has become common usage. To ablate means to cause not to exist but common usage includes removal of varicose veins and what we are talking about which is blocking the rogue electrical impulses within the heart. Since most of these are believed to come from the four pulmonary veins it is common to make a ring of scar tissue around these four veins to isolate them. Hence Pulmonary vein isolation or PVI for short. Up until about six years ago this could be done either surgically (open up the chest and heart - used till early nineties- or by using a catheter to feed a probe into the heart via a vein in the leg and then applying radio frequency energy to the tip of the probe to burn a small area of the heart. To produce a ring around each vein took a lot of time as a row of dots was needed so other methods were investigated culminating in the balloon cryo- ablation procedure where a small balloon is fed into the mouth of the pulmonary veins and liquid CO2 fed in to freeze the area and create a freeze burn ring. The laser system is new to me so I can't comment Rellim.
As mentioned cryo balloon ablation is probably commonly six year old technology and not all EP centres use it but I'm sorry I do not have statistics on percentages for each type.
Bob
I had my PVI in 2005 with all my wires going in at the femorals in both sides in the groin. my second 2006 Ablation was to the main chamber and I had 38 burns over 7.5 hours a few of them I felt the heat on my chest.
BOB , You may be interested in the video link I have posted lower down the page about laser balloon ablation procedure , it seems fairly new technology.
Thanks for that link. OK so the principle is the same as cryo -ablation but uses laser heat rather than cold to make the scars. Interesting tilt on a not so old idea. We shall see how results turn out over time.
I recall having a conversation with Richard Schilling about five years ago when I compared then current ablation technique with aviation and suggested that if 1994(the first RF ablations) was the Wright Brothers first flight then we were about the end of WW1. He thought differently and felt then that technique had plateaued with little new on the horizon. I still hope for those who follow us that I was right and they eventually break the sound barrier and have the ablation equivalent of Concorde.
Bob
The E P commented that the op was much quicker at about 1 1/2 to 2 hours and they were having a much smaller percentage of repeat procedures with the laser balloon method , presumably due to the smaller amount of spots and the more contiguous lines.
flyfisher, has it worked well for you?
Having watched the video again, I am inclined to think that mine will have been a laser balloon ablation. Amazed that the femoral vein had such tiny injuries.
I was asleep for mine and had radio frequency ablations and have had other sites than the pulmonary veins done, none of which worked for ever, but was good to be in sinus rhythm for a while anyway. Have now had a pace and ablate, but unfortunately still am very conscious of palpitations, just not so symptomatic
Eileen
jomack , I have read of 3 types.
cryo - ablation , freezing
normal spot ablation , continuous line of connected spots
and laser balloon ablation , crescent shape ablation tool within a baloon
I had laser balloon ablation at blackpool 6 months ago and they had only just got the technology available , it seems to be the latest method. A video of the procedure is available on the cardiofocus website.
cardiofocus.com/media_libra...
top left video with the dark haired guy.
Why do people have multiple ablations?
Question for those having had successful ablations
What type of AF do you have
Those people who have had a few cardio versions were you given amiodarone for any of them. 
