Epicardial endocardial ablation

[Tux18]

Have any of you had an epicardial endocardial ablation? I’m scheduled for one early next month. The back of my heart (outside of heart) will be ablated and then inside.

It’s not a hybrid convergent ablation as only an electrophysiologist will do procedure and instead of going through front of my body to get to back of heart he will go through my side. It seems to be new or rarely done I’ve not found information on this or known anyone that’s had this procedure. I find articles about this but not the procedure of going through the side of the patient rather than the regular hybrid ablation.

Thank you for any information any of you have.

[CDreamer]

I remember seeing a presentation about it at Patient Day but that’s about it. Good luck with it though.

[lyraw]

I had a hybrid ablation in January 2020 and they did go in through my side. I am in the US, and the procedure is being done by Drs at Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn, NY. I am doing well and have been free of a-fib. I still take Xarelto, no other AFIB-related meds, but eventually may be able to go off that as well. There is some minimal info on the hospital website, I believe. If you have any questions, I can try to answer.

Good luck!

[Tux18 in reply to lyraw]

You have no idea how relieved I am just to find someone else who has experienced this type of ablation. I've not had time to go to hospitals website in N.Y. but will do so soon. I'm wondering about recovery time after the procedure as compared to regular ablation?

Also, the doctor mentioned more pain involved than regular ablation? I had very little pain the my ablation about 2 yrs ago.

My ablation will be done at Vanderbilt in Nashville.

I'm thrilled for you that you have had such success after this procedure.

Thank you so much for taking to time to reply!

[johnMiosh]

This does seem like a convergent ablation. Epicardial means the outside of the heart and is accessed through the chest wall. Endocardial means inside the heart and is accessed via catheter. The epicardial is supposedly a more effective ablation, then the endocardial completes the lesion set, particularly on the back of the heart which can't be accessed through the chest wall. You will also have the left atrial appendage removed, which means no anticoagulents and you may have a CTI line ablation, which prevents AFlutter.

I had one in 2017 and have been AF free since. I did have some pain afterwards, but a lot of this was due to a reaction to oxycodone. I kept saying the pain was getting worse, so those dosed me up again. But it turned out that oxycodone was causing reflux, and that's where the pain was coming from.

Recovery was much slower than catheter ablation, but worth it now. There is a great deal of detail in my past posts if you search for my name.

If it is the Convergent ablation you are having, I am happy to answer any questions you may have.