Hello.
Has anyone here gone through radio frequency ablation for pulmonary veins isolation? I know they have to pierce the atrial wall to get to the veins and I am curious if it's painful? I have gone through two ablations which were much simpler, never left the right atrium and I was mildly sedated during both of them. I still felt some sudden "shocks" of pain shooting through my heart and shoulder couple of times and I wonder if that procedure is even worse.
Cheers!
Normal ablation for Atrial FIbrillation so no big deal. Had three with no issues.By the way it is not the atrial wall they punch through it is the septum between the two atria.
I've had several, well sedated and felt nothing when septum was punctured. Nothing to worry about .
Hello Sakhay, I’m not medically trained but as I understand the 4 Pulmonary Veins are considered to be the most likely areas where rogue impulses occur which cause AF so on that basis alone it has to be a very common part of the procedure for the majority of ablations. I believe most EP’s prefer to use a general anaesthetic for RF ablations and if that’s what they will use with you then you will not be aware of any discomfort. However, if they use sedation we always suggest that patients establish a method of making sure the team are aware if you are experiencing any discomfort so that they can increase the level of sedation. You don’t need me to tell you that you are very young to be having AF treatment and although you have had a couple of ablations already, you might find it helpful to take a look at the second “Pinned Post” top right of this page…..good luck and please let us know how you get on.
Thanks for your reply!
It is true that even being teetotaler and non-smoker did not prevent me getting a heart disease in relatively young age. Turns out being physically active might even been one of the reasons I started having arrythmias in the first place. 😕 Go figure.
The link between exercise and afib is not very clear as many studies are of poor quality, low numbers, do not adjust for confounders and usually only include men! My EP says recreation athletes are unlikely to "cause" afib unless they do many hours per day's of high intensity eyeballs out stuff like our de France cyclists. You may like to read this blog post on it
hhtafibathlete.blogspot.com...
Very interesting post. Oddly I have read several studies that found increased physical activity does contribute to AF risk. And I am pretty sure it was one of the causes for me, because even my first episode hit me during an excercise. I have noticed same kind of contradictions in coffee studies. Some say drinking coffee with AF does you good while others find the opposite. I can assure that drinking coffee for me is a trigger and not good at all. But hey, that's how science work. Arguing is part of finding the truth.🙂
And everyone is different too. Good luck
I wondered if that might be the case and you need to bear in mind that any “extreme” sporting activity is likely to adversely affect recovery and this is always hard to handle for folk who are passionate about their sport. There’s an American EP called Dr John Mandrola who has AF and is a keen sportsman, you might find some of his stuff interesting….
Hi. I have to admit that I did feel them pierce the septum as I asked them what they were doing because it was uncomfortable. It was only for a short while and reading my report afterwards, it looks like they had to have a couple of cracks at it so may be that's what caused me to feel it.
Hi Sakhay, I had that procedure in Barts Heart Centre in Feb 2019 and was given a GA so did not know anything about it.
I've had this and you do feel a slight prick as it goes through but it doesn't hurt
No, it's not painful. I had PVI under sedation and you get some odd sensations, mine in my face (!). The two RF ablations were under G A. No pain. I'm not sure the actual heart has pain receptors inside itself actually. Hope this helps. All ablations needed two holes in the septum but you can't feel it happening at all. I was very surprised how quickly they thread all the 'wires' up inside tbh. Just amazing, so interesting too x
Blood vessels do not have pain nerves in them I'm told. When I had an agiogram via radial artery I was aware of things moving in my arm as they fed the catheter through but no pain as such. It was all the other bits being pushed out of the way I think. The bloke doing it was in a bad mood too as he shouted at his assistant which probably didn't help.
I too had x4 PVI cryo ablations plus bonus one in August 2021. I could feel slight prick when going thru septum and actual freezing of PVI's. I did wince (and probably whinged) during ablation but they increased sedation as and when. Definately do it again if needed. All good so far (touch wood)
In August, I had the new pulse field ablation, in a clinical trial, which is also called electroporation of pulmonary veins. It was under GA so no pain and none after, either. Anxious for the FDA to approve…it should make RF and Cryo obsolete.
Like so many others have mentioned, mine were done under general anesthesia, so didn’t feel a thing. It took 3 ablations by 2 different EPs, but the last one finally zapped the afib. Would have another in a minute if they thought they could get rid of my tachycardia too.
Pulmonary vein Isolation
Pulmonary vein isolation for " Quality of Life" not health ,in Wales .
Cryoablation vein seepage
One Month Post RF Pulmonary Vein Ablation
Recovery advice (Pulmonary Vein Ablation)
