Home after cryo ablation

[Bunny92]

Hello everyone,

Well, I had my cryo ablation on Thursday, and came home on Friday (I had a GA). I dont know if they did a more indepth procedure because I was asleep or what, but they told me they would put a camera down my throat, they would inject dye into the heart and they would give me violent hiccups. Since coming home I have had a sort lump in my throat and a pain mid chest, like I need to burp but dont seem able to, but when I do burp, it tastes very chemically, not pleasant at all. I am also feeling quite light headed. I just wondered how long it takes to get the anaesthetic out of my system?

[BobD Volunteer]

Three months. I found after all my long GAs that I had symptoms from it (temporary memory loss) for months afterwards, They say no driving for 48 hours but I found even a week later I was still foggy.

Incidentally they can only do so much with cryo so "in depth" doesn't come into it. If you need additional isolation other than the four pulmonary veins you will need an RF ablation at a later date. ( I haven't heard of a combined ablation so far ).

The symptoms you describe sound quite normal. The TOE to check on your heart (camera down throat) is most likely the cause of your discomfort.

[Bunny92 in reply to BobD]

Thanks for the speedy reply Bob, and yes I think the discomfort is from the camera too. As for getting over the GA, wow, 3 months? I was hoping it would be much quicker. Also thank you for the advice you gave before I went in, the sports bottle was a godsend, as was the lip salve.

[nettecologne in reply to BobD]

Could you please explain to me what cryo cannot do vs RF ablation?

Thanks,

nette

[BobD Volunteer in reply to nettecologne]

If you down load the Ablation booklet from AF Association website you will understand, but briefly, cryo uses a small balloon into which a freezing gas is pumped which causes a freeze burn. The balloon is placed in the entrances to the four pulmonary veins. This is often successful where only those veins are the origins of the rogue impulses but of course if other areas are firing off the balloon is unable to deal with them,. For those areas a subsequent Radio Frequency ablation may be required to tidy up the loose ends.

Hope that helps Nette.

Bob

[PeterWh in reply to nettecologne]

I would also add that RF is used where people only have 3 veins coming into the heart (25% of the population) and if the entrance is irregular then RF may be needed to ablate the irregular areas as each one is a point point burn.

[JoolzC]

I had a cryoablation on 5 Aug and your experience is similar to mine. My EP said that one of the risks during the procedure is that your diaphragm can be paralysed so to check that all is ok they give you hiccups throughout and it tells them that all is ok. Amazing...!