Catheter ablation

[Sharon3630]

My daughter aged 23 had an ablation yesterday but they were unable to trigger the episodes. Has anyone else experienced this as she is feeling so fed up that they could do it .

[Hidden]

I’m not medically trained Sharon but I wonder if that is actually a good sign. As I understand it, it’s relatively easy for an EP to induce AF. I was in normal rhythm before I had both of my ablations and the same is true for many and I don’t recall hearing this happening before. Being that she is so young, maybe the need for an ablation has changed. Do you know if they entered the heart and were able to check out the pulmonary veins, maybe the feedback she gets from the procedure will be encouraging……..

[Jalia]

Yes, I've heard this happen but not to me! Possibly someone on hear will read this and comment on their experiences.

[4chickens]

I feel her frustration, my EP will only perform the ablation on me when I’m in AF or AFL. Last time I went into Af then AFL he scheduled me as an emergency I was in for the ablation 6 weeks later. Unfortunately whilst doing it they touched something? And I reverted to nsr they couldn’t get me back into Af. So in his words it was guess work after that, needless to say I’ve had 2 Af episodes since and I’m now waiting to go into AF again so he can list me for an emergency ablation again. Good luck to your daughter hope she gets a positive outcome.

[Lenlec]

I didn’t think there was a need to be in Af during ablation? When I had my cryo ablation in sept I wasn’t in Af I briefly went into Af during the procedure the ep said though.

[Fortescue in reply to Lenlec]

That's my experience too. I was not in AF due to medication, and indeed was told to continue with the Flecainide right up to the op. When I asked about this, because a friend had a dreadful time pre-op after stopping the meds for several days to get her into AF, my (eminent) cardiologist said it doesn't help to stop the anti-arythmics, but I could helpfully stop the bisoprolol on the morning of the op. So I had no AFib or flutter on the day of the op. He said the op went well and told me to stop the Flecainide, which I did, and there has been no AFib since. Almost a miracle after 15 years, though keeping my fingers crossed. I have noted several differences between the approach with my friend under a different surgeon/hospital and the approach that I experienced. It has puzzled me. I had thought myself, just logically, that I would need to stop the meds a few days before the op and been dreading that more than anything else. But it seems that, at the very least, it's not always necessary.

[blulla1]

It happened to a friend of mine. Turns out that he didn't have atrial fibrillation but some kind of ventricular flutter which they were able to diagnose at a later date and successfully fix in a subsequent ablation.

[KMRobbo]

I was not in afib when i went into the lab . I did nit even stop flecainide or diltiazem. But they still performed the PVI cryoablation and they had something showing on the screen that the cryoablation stopped. The EP assured me the ablation was successful immediately after the procedures ( he was correct) . I always believed that they induced the afib in the lab during the procedure.

[Yoursonice]

Hi Sharon,It has happened to me. When I went in for my first ablation procedure, they could not do it as they needed a special equipment to conduct the triggers. Once they reserved this equipment (sorry, I cannot remember the name as it has been approxmately 7 years ago), I had the ablation again and it worked great. They found the triggers and fixed me up.

[splashrollandplod]

I had ablation for AF 5 months ago. I thought they might induce AF to detect where the extra beats were being initiated but Cardiologist told me that because that’s hard to do (induce and detect) he would be ablating the pulmonary veins where they enter the left atrium. And that was the most common place AF is initiated. I have a feeling they used to try and detect the location but do so less now - not sure though.

[Bagarabe]

When I did my ablation in 2013, the EP told me that when they couldn’t trigger the arrhythmia he had use flecainide to induce it so as to be able to locate the rogue nerve or whatever it was!

[lovetogarden]

I’ve had 3 ablations. First 2 were marginally successful - they were PVI ablations for afib. Switched to a new EP and he did the 3rd. He said there breaks in the previous work, he had no trouble triggering the afib. Touched it all up and added some extra lines of scarring and the afib seems to be under control.

BUT he couldn’t trigger the tachycardia, so therefore couldn’t ablate it.

Same EP did a tachycardia ablation on a friend. I heard that they’d had a really hard time triggering his, but they finally caught it. I asked the EP recently if there had been any improvements in techniques since my last ablation. He said not really, and the chance of triggering it on another try is about 50/50.

Just know that it sometimes takes more than one try. I empathize w your daughter. It’s hard stuff. And at 23, this has to be really challenging for her. 💔

[Zeinmassri]

I had done two ablations but I was in permanent Afib/flutter so they didn’t need to trigger it but i was told that after my second ablation they used 3D mapping technology and they apparently tried to trigger multiple times and it wasn’t triggered hence they ruled it as a successful procedure but unfortunately it wasn’t because 9 days later my heart went into permanent Afib as well and it was even more intense and became worse. Fast forward 6 months later I’m scheduled for a third ablation by a different EP. I’m also very young but not as young as your daughter I’m 33 years old and I understand how hard it is on all the family members and I understand what’s it’s like to be in your daughters shoes. I can tell you this, it will get better with the proper treatment and she will eventually get used to it. For me stress was huge factor and a trigger. Once I learned to accept it and understand that it’s not a death sentence then I started to relax a little more. I wish you and your daughter nothing but the best

🌹