New technique developed at St Bartholemew Hospital London

[pottypete1]

Just picked this news item up.

Interesting new procedure developed by Prof. Richard Schilling and the Barts team.

Pete

dailym.ai/2HBw0t2

[Hidden]

Sounds interesting Pete, will raise at our Support Group meeting this Wednesday.......

[Enjoy in reply to Hidden]

I must have missed the support group date. Can you repeat it please John

[Hidden in reply to Enjoy]

Sorry, but only just seen this! It's this evening at 5pm..😧

[Drounding]

This sounds like an interesting development.

This snippet from the article shows a lack of understanding/knowledge from the reporter though:

"...and was prescribed Flecainide, a blood thinning drug used for AF."

[CDreamer in reply to Drounding]

Absolutely! But then it is the Mail.

[pottypete1 in reply to CDreamer]

I have just sent an email to the MailOnline ‘corrections’ contact email address 😜

[pottypete1 in reply to Drounding]

Not only describing Flecainide (a rhythm control drug) as a blood thinner which is isn’t, but as we know there is no such thing as a blood thinner it should be an ANTICOAGULANT!!!!

Pete

[C66t in reply to Drounding]

Hi Drounding, I question that as well they need to check their facts. Flecanide is not an anticoagulant.

[CDreamer]

Looks like an advance but as I have unusual PVs & only 3 of them - as do a fair percentage of the population - don’t think it will be a goer for me.

Maybe I’ll try the electric fence method instead - thought that was hilarious placement!

[Finvola]

Interesting article Pete - thanks for posting.

[CDreamer]

Oh well done!

[secondtry]

Thank you! I was offered an ablation but postponed it as I felt the current procedures (4 years ago) and success rate were not worth the risk; things look brighter every year. Also, I have used my contrary decision to the medics to push myself to double efforts to change my lifestyle (the best plan, I believe York Cardiology has said). So far so good.

[opal11uk]

Professor Schilling is a leader in the world of A/F it is his speciality I believe, anyone can be referred to him via GP

[fnurd in reply to opal11uk]

Richard Schilling did my ablation 6 months ago (so far so good). I had selected him (with the help of this site) as being just about the best. To get referred to him you will need to use the "choose and book" system, which works very well in my experience. However not all GPs sign up to it.

[sirey]

Prof. Schilling is such a clever man. He did my cryoablation on the NHS for that I will always be grateful. It ‘s great to know there is something new in the pipe line.

[Treffynnon]

As it happened, I had a routine appointment with my EP today and mentioned I had read about this "new" treatment. Telling him I'd read it in the Daily Mail prompted extreme eye roll! His comment that the "Daily Mail is just free advertising for doctors wanting more private patients", demonstrated a degree of cynicism that matches my own! (I should add that I don't believe that was aimed at Prof Shilling specifically). He also told me that balloon ablation is not new and that the procedure involves entry further into the pulmonary vein which can cause another condition (the name of which escapes me) in the vein. Never straightforward is it? Especially when the DM is involved.

[pottypete1 in reply to Treffynnon]

That is very interesting.

My EP who now practices at another hospital was one of Dr Schillings team up until 2016. In the research papers that have been published they are both listed.

I think it was about a year ago that I remember Dr Ernst was carrying out trials on nerve ending ablations (ref Vagal nerve I think) in the heart and Hidden was one of her patients.

I mentioned this procedure to my EP at the time and he said all these 'new' techniques are very much in the development stage.

The trouble is that these Doctors find it difficult to have discussions in detail with us mere mortals about medical advances and they are reluctant to suggest that such and such a new development might be the answer to all the dreams of us AF sufferers.

Having said that 3D mapping was unheard of until recently and in fact when I was first diagnosed with AF ablation was unheard of.

Around 1994 was under the care of a research fellow who is now the Director of the arrythmia services at one of the top London hospitals. On one occasion he and a colleague carried out what I now believe to be one of the early ablations. As you might guess from the fact that I am here it didn't solve my problems. At the time I had no knowledge of what was being developed or what was to come. As far as I was concerned it was just take the tablets and have a cardioversion from time to time.

In summary I am not surprised at your EP's reaction but that does not stop us reading these things and hoping that either this or that treatment will be our answer.

Pete

[Treffynnon in reply to pottypete1]

I completely agree that reading and tracking developments and educating oneself is an essential part of dealing with AF.

When I first met my EP nearly eight years ago I asked about ablation (in those days I just wanted to be cured and go back to doing extreme exercise) and he was very circumspect. Over the years dealing with consultants I have found one of the most illuminating questions to ask is, “if it was you or your child, what would you do?”, and watch the body language. His answer was basically “watch and wait, we’re getting better all the time.” We’ve had many discussions about risk and reward and how to measure them, the most recent being earlier today about whether to anti-coagulate or not. This is of course different for every sufferer and depends on severity of AF, co-morbidities etc. I am relatively fortunate in that flecainide keeps me in sinus most of the time and so have been able to put off ablation and to “watch and wait.” Others are not so lucky and each new procedure development offers renewed hope for a fix. The real problem seems to be the almost complete lack of understanding of the root cause of AF. Given the scale of what seems to be an epidemic way more research is needed into the cause. When I was diagnosed I’d never heard of AF, now I have three friends with it as well as my 95 year-old mother.

[Surreyhunni]

Thank you for this link pottypete. I'm under Dr Lowe at St Barts and had almost given up hope after a failed cryoablation last August for my PAF, which lead to a phrenic nerve injury from the procedure. I'm still living with the consequences, the paralysed diaphragm and 8 months on there is no improvement but this new procedure really interests me and I shall be asking Dr Lowe if I may be considered for it.

[frammy2]

Brilliant news pottypete1,I have had 2 ablations and still not right.As I am 69 yrs. old an ex racing cyclist,would love to be confident enough to go out on the bike as body apart from the heart is in excellent condition,thanks for info.pottypete1.