Asking for anyone’s experience of surgical ablation as opposed to catheter ablation?
Was told yesterday by cardiologist that my case has been reviewed by local teaching hospital with the EP team & they hope to do a surgical ablation (if I want it).
Now some people would not opt for surgical treatment & be happy on drug treatment but personally I don’t fancy the concept of that long term at 47 & my frequency increasing so trying to not get to stage of permanent AF.
So it’s a woo hoo 🥳 because this time 2 weeks ago it looked like this wasn’t an option for me & it might be now. Waiting for heart CT.
Weird that one can be excited about heart surgery 🤷🏼♀️
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Pigleywigley
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John just read one of your posts I’m NGH too 👏👏 have complete faith in them I had heart surgery with them 20 years ago to close my atrial septal defect. So you had surgical as opposed to catheter? & why not catheter?
When you say 'surgical' ablation ... are you talking about some version of the Maze procedure with entry through the chest?
Personally, I doubt if I would do that. EP ablation through the groin is a much more common procedure (and less invasive) and if you get a good EP it has high success rates. (Sometimes, a 2nd ablation is necessary to get good results, however).
If the EP ablation doesn't work, then you can always opt for the Maze at a later time.
You might benefit from reading EP John Day's book THE AFIB CURE. He discusses the 'surgery' vs ablation scenarios. Actually, the whole book would benefit anyone with AFIB.
PS ....... the term 'teaching hospital' scares me.
Teaching hospital = equals big centre of excellence that teaches new doctors. The opposite of scary. All hospitals have trainees - placed on rotation. Not all hospitals are big teaching ones.
Sometimes catheter ablation wouldn’t reach the parts needed to reach in some heart conditions?
You will often see the recommendation that you should only go to an EP who has done hundreds of procedures. The logical problem with that is that no new EPs could be trained and once the existing ones retire, the procedure would be lost.
True, doctors have to start somewhere, but medic friends say that the first few are done under intense supervision ofAn expert, it is the middle range ones that are scary!
Hi thanks The Lord. But I can’t have catheter because of my previous heart surgery. I have no idea how it compares to the maze 🤷🏼♀️.Yes as Faber points out teaching is good, they always have top equipment, new procedures and latest technology & doctors tend to want to work in a teaching hospital. My local hospital does not do the same hence their link with the other much bigger hospital.
Stephen Hunter did my procedure as part of a clinical trial, I had a mini-maze, followed six months later by a touch up catheter ablation; this was to reach the rear of the heart and deal with any reconnection or flutter. The mini-maze cohort were all successful, but a percentage of the control group (2 catheter ablations) experienced some return of AF. I am not sure how the figures add up internationally, but I am very pleased with my result.
The mini-maze is quite scary (lung deflation and access through the chest wall) but I was so excited to be able to have it. I said at the time I felt like I had been hit by a truck, and as I drifted in and out of AF at the hospital, I was beginning to regret it. However, I was relatively fit (except for the AF), recovered quickly and the AF disappeared after a couple of weeks.
It may be a full maze procedure that you require as you won't be able to have the catheter top up. This will be full open chest and require a good few days in hospital and a slow recovery. On the plus side Maze successes are very high.
In your position I think I would jump at the opportunity for a Maze, rather than drug treatment, but you would need to think seriously about the recovery.
Hi,I am in the US and have a good Electrophysiologist. I had 2 catheter ablations 2 years apart. The first one was in 2011. The second in 2013 was so much easier and the procedure had improved in just 2 years. I was 59 at the time and remained afib free for the past 7 years. Last fall the afib returned and they cardiaverted me in December. So far so good. Everyone's symptoms are different. I'm sure some Arrythmias are more difficult to fix. I just prefer to stay off any more meds than necessary. Everyone has to do their own research and advocate for themselves. I imagine in some countries you don't have a lot of choices, but I would have a third catheter ablation if necessary. The more procedures the doc has done, the better. Good luck!
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