Post Ablation

[mullikg]

Has anyone had or heard of anyone who has suffered blood clotting of the lungs after an ablation. It has happened to my 48yr old daughter and I wondered whether there was a link between the two or if this was a freak occurrence.

[SRMGrandma Volunteer]

It is a known, but rare occurrence in the list of possible serious complications of having an ablation. I think the numbers are are around 0.4% for risk of it happening. I hope your daughter improves quickly.

[mullikg in reply to SRMGrandma]

Many thanks for your reply Grandma.

[BobD Volunteer]

Yes very very rare but nothing is risk free. Many EPs will now perform ablation whilst the patient is on anticoagulant rather than stopping a few days before so increasingly rare I think. Hope things settle down soon.

Bob

[mullikg in reply to BobD]

Thank you Bob for your reply.

[MarkS]

Hi Mullikg,

I'm very sorry to hear about your daughter.

It would help us a lot if you could set out what her anti-coagulation protocol was - i.e. was she on warfarin? Did she stop before the operation or continue? Also was she in the right INR range?

Many thanks and I hope she recovers soon.

Mark

[mullikg in reply to MarkS]

Hi MarkS

The information that I have is in my reply to" howesgilly" In addition we do not have any figures for the INR readings.

Many thanks

mullikg

[Hidden]

Hope she is recovering well now. Has she been subsequently tested for Factor V Leiden, evidently around 15% of us have this gene defect, most not knowing it.

I developed a blood clot in my leg after a long car journey 15 years ago and was found to have this condition. I think it is worth knowing as surgeons can give you a shot of heparin or other as a precaution and generally take it into account.

[howesgilly]

Do you mind explainingh her symptoms a little please: and as explained before her coagulation regime please

[mullikg]

She has never been on anticoagulation tablets, or any other tablets before but is now on a new drug ( an alternative to Warfarin). She has suffered from Atrial Flutter for most of her life and had the ablation because the problem was getting more frequent and more severe. My daughter had the ablation almost two weeks ago which was not entirely successful and was stopped short for fear of damaging the heart. After one week she was very breathless and was taken to see her Doctor who arranged an appointment at the hospital with her cardiologist at 9 am the following morning where they conducted several tests and scans and finally found a large blood clot on her lungs.

Hope this helps and thank you for your interest.

[MarkS in reply to mullikg]

Thanks, Mullikg.

I'm very surprised she wasn't on any anti-coags for her ablation. That's asking for trouble as an ablation is a high risk operation for generating clots. The whole op sounds a bit of a mess. Ablations for atrial flutter are usually very straightforward with a high success rate. You might consider a 2nd opinion on the next steps.

Mark

[mullikg]

Thank you MarkS. I will check that out. My daughter was told that the success rate for this procedure was 95% which is why we decided to go for it .

[PeterWh in reply to mullikg]

Don't let the following dampen your enthusiasm or decision to go for an ablation because I personally believe that this is the way to go.

Firstly you need to look at the caveats on your sources. As with everything the devil is in the small print and caveats.

The success rate depends very much on the type of AF, the severity, where the source is, how long you have had it, etc. At the AFA patients day the overall success rate quoted was I think 70% to 80% after multiple ablations. For those in persistent AF the success rate quoted in many places is 30% to 40% FIRST time. Look at the AFA website in their general leaflets and also the slides from the October patients day.

I suspect that some of the overall statistics may be conservative and also some consultants optimistic about their success rates. Also depends on their measures. There is no national register or fully defined bases as far as I know.

I am glad that my EP is not one who eliminates doing ablations on people with a poor chances of success, particularly first time, as he said that in MY case there was realistically no chance of success first time and that it would take two and possibly three attempts. I did tell him to be absolutely honest and open. I lasted less than 72 hours in NSR. Very glad I had it done and am awaiting second ablation.

[MarkS in reply to PeterWh]

Hi Peter,

The success rates you quote are fine for the ablation of atrial fibrillation, however Mullikg's sister has atrial flutter. This occurs in the right atrium and is much easier to treat than AFib in the left atrium. Hence it has a success rate of around 97%.

Clots in the left atrium go to the brain (stroke) whereas clots in the right atrium go to the lungs, which is what his sister had.

AFib is however a common result of AFlutter ablation.

Mark