A useful article from Barts AF on “what should we do with blanking period AF”
I notice a few people have struggled with this recently following ablation, so the BARTs article may offer some hope or useful info to discuss with the arrhythmia team. Do google it. If nothing else it makes clear that no one should be left with uncomfortable and anxiety-provoking symptoms.
As someone who benefited from a cardioversion during the blanking period it’s good to know this approach is being explored and studied. Quote:
“Small studies of electrical cardioversion of persistent AF during this blanking period have been encouraging and suggest it may reduce the likelihood of AF after the blanking period. This may be by interrupting those electrical changes, making later AF onset less likely.”
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Rainfern
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As I think Royal Brompton have been doing for years. I remember e mailing my nurse from France when I went back into AF at about six weeks and by the time I was back in England four days later she had a date for my DCCV two days on. They never liked to leave you in AF so soon after the ablation .
(Mind you I fear it was self inflicted thanks to some very nice rack of lamb washed down with Merlot the night before I flew out thanks to a greatful client. Went into AF as I parked at Stansted!)
It was a long time ago. I had combined some business near Peterborough with a trip to see my sister in France from Stanstead to save a lot of mileage and client took me to dinner. That was before I realised how bad alcohol was for my AF. I think it was only about six weeks after my third ablation but luckily after the DCCV no more AF.
The key message is that AF during the blanking period is common, and you may correctly be told that these episodes do not reflect procedural failure. However, it is important to report these recurrences to your healthcare team, especially if they are causing symptoms. There is no reason to just tolerate and bear it, as non-ablation treatments can still be given and can have a positive effect.
Sometimes "blanking" can be confused with a carte blanche to ignore post ablation symptoms, when in reality all symptoms should be reported as some can be treated with a "positive effect" on eventual outcome.
Just read your post from a day ago - great news you’re back in NSR and hope you can gradually get the meds reduced. 8 months down the line I’m still having milestones of of recovery - 10 weeks is early days! I was still very easily exhausted at that stage even though on no meds apart from anticoagulant. Hope you’re soon feeling lots better.
Thanks, I'll see what the arrhythmia nurse has to say. Summer is never great for me as I get bad hayfever and can't find any meds that don't make me extra tired or make my pulse race. So it's eye drops and nasal spray which only half work. I wouldn't mind if at least we had some decent summer weather (but I can't sit out in it anyway thanks to the amiodarone)! Still being in NSR outweighs all of that along with the hope of being off bisoprolol and amiodarone one day. For now I just have to accept there are days when I can't do as much as I'd like.
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