AF pacemaker

[Martincla]

My Dr.is considering an AF pacemaker,and it sounds a bit scary to me to be totally reliant on this "box" to control my heartbeat,have had 2 ablations during the past 6 years and unfortunately the AF returned.....Anybody out there gone through this procedure ??

[BobD Volunteer]

Firstly there is no such thing as an AF pacemaker as AF can't be paced. . What is under consideration is implanting a pacemaker to manage the ventricle which is the main pumping chamber and once that has settled in and the heart is used to it, ablation of the AV node which is the heart's natural pacemaker. Your ventricle is therefore managed by the PM to give you a regular pulse whilst the AF can do what it likes without interfering. You may still be aware of the goings on inside but the symptoms of fatigue etc should be improved. As you say it makes a patient PM dependent although you wouldn't die if it failed as the heart will still continue to beat albeit quite slowly.

By the way I had three ablations before my AF was stopped eight years ago.

[seasider18 in reply to BobD]

I believe that the heart rate would go down into the 20's if it failed or adjusted for an MRI scan. I have yet to have an AV node ablation as they did not want me to be pacemaker dependent when I had an MRI scan earlier this year.

I have not reminded them again that I had the scan as I'm not sure that I really need or want the AV node ablation as I seem to have done OK just with the pacemaker for the past 17 months.

[Hidden]

Hello Martincia, I was diagnosed with AF 18 months ago. I was immediately put on Bisoprolol( the dose being increased over the months to 7.5 mg ) I then had a pacemaker fitted in Feb this year and apart from the odd flutter, I've been fine. I'm not saying this would work for everyone as we are all different, and of course things could change for me as AF is so unpredictable. But the procedure lasted about 1 hour, I chose not to be sedated but I was injected around the area just under the collar bone , where my Pacemaker is fitted, which took away most of the pain of the procedure. I felt a lot of pushing and pulling and some nerve pain in my shoulder, but I didn't think it was too bad. I was told that the Bisoprolol brings my heart rate down and the Pacemaker keeps it beating at a steady pace so it doesn't go too low. I trusted the cardiologist when he suggested this treatment and it's turned out to be the right one for me. AF is rotten to live with so I hope you can make the best decision for yourself.

[EricR]

Yes. I have permanent afib that my cardiologist decided ablations would not fix. Even with annual physician health exams, my paroxysmal afib went undiagnosed and was asymptomatic until one night last year, when an attack occurred during sleep, triggering ventricular tachycardia and stopping my heart. I now have an implanted defribillator-pacemaker. Am on Carvedilol and Eliquis and doing well. No further incidents.