Two Ablations for paroxysmal AF now have SVT

[Dale40]

I had my 1st ablation in July this year for paroxysmal AF. Had Cryo Ablation using the balloon method. Unfortunately part of the heart couldn't be fully ablated due to the freezing affecting the hiccup nerve. I went back into AF within 24 hours of having the ablation. Had several bouts of AF for the next six weeks ranging from a few minutes to around 12 hours in length. They decided to do another ablation using the Radio Frequency method this time which I had done on the 30th September. Apparently there wasn't too much to do only ablate the three pulmonary veins that had reconnected where they couldn't do a full freeze before. For the 1st seven days felt fine no irregular heartbeats whatsoever. Then on the 8th day had SVT which I have never suffered from at all in my life. It lasted for about an hour then my heart returned to a normal sinus rhythm. Had two more attacks the following days one only lasting about a minute the other again around a hour. However yesterday I bent over to pick something up and my heart went into SVT again. I sat down and hoped it would revert again to NSR but after 3 hours it was still racing with a regular fast resting heartbeat of 187 beats per minute. I dialled 999 and was taken on blue light to hospital, where after a couple of unsuccessful attempts to try and get my heart back into NSR with some exercises they carried out a Cardio Version using drugs. Thankfully it worked the first time. Now feeling pretty tired today and very aware of my heartbeat. However now very worried that in curing my not so life threatening paroxysmal AF they have now caused a life threatening SVT. Or is this kind of thing normal and will it get better over the next few months. Anyone else suffered with this?

[Hidden]

Hey dale, I'm not altogether sure of what's what, but I believe the usual healing period for an ablation is around 3 months, and these blips are and can be very common in this "blanking" period, but I'm sure someone will be along soon who has had experience

[Dale40 in reply to Hidden]

Thanks juggsy75

[BobD Volunteer]

In my view this is quite normal and by the way SVT is not generally life threatening. You are thinking of ventricular tachycardia.

SVT is supra ventricular tachycardia or another name for atrial tachycardia where the signals are coming from above the ventricle i. e. the atrium. A tach or SVT is quite common in the early stages of recovery and healing from ablation. Remember that it take between three and six months for the heart to recover and the scars which block the rogue impulses to form.

[Dale40 in reply to BobD]

Thanks Bob, that's made me feel a lot better. Just spoken to the hospital, my consultant is going to check out the ecg's taken yesterday just to confirm that they are SVT. If so it is very easy to cure with an ablation that only takes an hour and a half with a 98% success rate, so I have been told.

[BobD Volunteer in reply to Dale40]

May settle down anyway. Mine did.

[pip_pip in reply to Dale40]

Quite right. This often happens after an Afib ablation. It happened to me, and bare in mind its easier to treat Tachycardia than AFib with ablation. My third ablation was specifically to deal with this Tachy problem, and 2 years later, it's still good.

I'm sure it will all work out well for you.

Phil