Ablation

[Ladywalker]

I wore a heart monitor for 4 weeks and the Dr. Said that I have something called SVT and I need to have an catheter ablation done because my heart isn't beating correct. Has anyone ever had this?

[SVTSophie]

Hi Ladywalker. I have sent you a message x

[Rellim296]

Yes, I've had an ablation for SVT. It was a few years ago - 2011.

SVT stands for Supra Ventricular Tachycardia and it means that the upper chambers of the heart sometimes beat faster than normal because of a slight electrical malfunction. The heartbeats are usually quite regular but too fast. The fast rhythm can come and then go away and can last for a few seconds, minutes or hours. The ablation aims to correct the tiny bit of heart where the electrical impulses are not working as they should and the treatment can be very effective.

[JonathanPittsCrick]

SVT isn't dangerous so you don't need an ablation unless you have palpitations that are bad enough that you want to stop them. If they were just a worry but otherwise don't interfere with your life, you can stop worrying and ignore them.

Ablation for SVT has a very high success rate and is pretty safe (compared with AF ablation which you will see discussed a lot on this forum).

[portugueseheart in reply to JonathanPittsCrick]

Good afternoon,

My daughter is twenty-four years old and had her first supra-ventricular tachycardia when she was twelve. It was a long episode but it stopped by itself. Until the age of fourteen she had short episodes which stopped by themselves. Then for the next eight years she had no episodes and we thought she had got rid of the problem. However, two years ago the svt episodes returned and they have been more frequent, forcing her to go to hospital where she is given adenosine. She doesn't take any medicines regularly and apart from the acute episodes of tachycardia she is ok, even during them she doesn't have many complaints. She was advised to have an ablation done but she is a bit doubtful. We would like to hear your opinion. Thanks.

[JonathanPittsCrick in reply to portugueseheart]

The SVT is clearly impacting on her life and is likely to do so more, especially if she wants to travel to out-of-the-way places where i-v adenosine may not be available.

Also pregnancy can have an unpredictable effect of attacks – they can get better or worse – and ablation (involving X-ray exposure) should not be done in early pregnancy.

So I would encourage her to go ahead soon and have the ablation which, with an experienced electrophysiology cardiologist, should be very safe and with a high first-time permanent success rate.

[Skitts]

I have SVT my doctor said carryt on. No big deal. Have alraedy had ablation for afib

[Rellim296 in reply to Skitts]

I'd had SVT for over 20 years before the ablation. In fact, although I had had a 7 day monitor (which showed up nothing but sinus rhythm) during the ablation it was found that I had AF.

[Ladywalker]

Yes I did have the ablation in January 2018 and niw the Dr. Says that I have developed Afib wore a 21 day monitor says treat with Meds