Pseudo Aneurysm

[BorderTerri]

I’m now 2 weeks post ablation which so far, is good with no AF and a steady heart rate. But, I’ve developed a pseudo aneurysm in my groin (access point) and await operation to fix this week. It’s been darn painful and just reaching out to anyone else who’s has this.

[AmandaLouise77]

Hello! Welcome to this exclusive club, not many members that I've found!

I had my ablation 1 year ago today, a few days later the groin pain was getting worse, not better and I'd developed a soft oedema lump halfway down my thigh which was throbbing. I phoned arrhythmia nurse and was asked to attend cardiology outpatients. She listened to my groin with a stethoscope, said she could hear bruille (noise) and luckily my consultant was in so she got his to come and listen too. I was immediately sent for an ultrasound. You know when you're in trouble when 3 Dr's come to see and use it to teach students! Pseudoanuerysm diagnosed.

I was sent upstairs to Interventional Radiology where Thrombin was injected under ultrasound (very painful even with a local anaesthetic), told to go home for the weekend and rest, come back Monday. Monday it hadn't clotted and procedure was repeated, this time I had to lay down for 30 mins afterwards, then sent home to rest and return Tuesday (I had gone back into AF over the weekend with all the stress, increased my bisoprolol temporarily which sorted that out)

Tuesday, ultrasound scan again, still not clotted, Vascular team were called, they sent me for a CT scan. I had an arterio venous fistula hiding behind the pseudoaneurysm. I was immediately admitted and told to prepare for emergency surgery.

Surgery the next day (Wednesday) . They went in through my groin crease at the top on my leg, repaired both femoral artery and vein using artificial bovine vessels (like tiny tubigrip). I had a catheter and a drain inserted, incision from pubic bone to under the hip bone, but very neat all along the leg crease. Thursday afternoon, after ward rounds, drain and catheter removed and a lovely health care assistant helped me to my feet, hovered whilst I used the loo and had a wash and cleaned my teeth. Bliss!. Once I was deemed safe to walk I was encouraged to walk laps on the ward. I was allowed to shower eventually too. I was discharged on the Friday evening as it was Easter weekend and they were trying to empty the ward. I think I'd have been in another day otherwise.

Scar was healing well, I had to visit the GP nurse regularly to help with dressing changes and everytime you try to look that area just folds up and disappears. I did sadly get a hospital acquired superbug in the incision site, pseudamonas, which needed special antibiotics, ones with 3 black box warnings, including heart arrythmia!

It probably took at least 6 months to get most of my movement back into that hip, I still have nerve damage, weird numbness down my inner thigh. I eventually had a course of physio to help with the movement.

Fast forward to now, I've just come back from a lovely skiing holiday, no issues with balance or gross motor movement of my right leg. I'm still in NSR and I'd definitely have another ablation if I needed one.

I'm happy for you to message me if you want to talk, I couldn't find anyone else who had been through similar.

[BorderTerri in reply to AmandaLouise77]

Wow that’s quite a journey and hoping my experience is more straight forward. I’ve been advised it’s common following cardiac ablation so will see this week how I go. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[AmandaLouise77 in reply to BorderTerri]

Do you know what treatment you'll be having? I think they tried most of them on me, another option would have been stents to repair the damaged areas but I was told that they'd probably need redoing in a few years so I opted for the full surgery

[BorderTerri in reply to AmandaLouise77]

Not sure until I arrive as referred from my local hospital to a hospital that specialises in vascular

[Hugheart]

Hi

One of my medical colleagues who did catherizations via femoral access mentioned that post cath bleeding was occasionally concerning. My sense is it is not unusual but mostly contained with thrombin so the experience described by Amandalouise77 would likely have been an unfortunate outlier.

Hugheart

[BorderTerri in reply to Hugheart]

Thank you for your post😊

[Efka]

Husband developed a pseudo aneurysm not in the groin but in the wrist after an angiography. After failed attempts to stop the bleed a couple of weeks later they operated. No stent just stiches. No issues afterwards apart from normal healing “stuff” with nerve endings tingling etc.

(As an aside we used arnica gel as his bruise post-op was huge)

Here’s to everything going smoothly and a speedy recovery for you, Eva

[BorderTerri in reply to Efka]

Thanks feeling more reassured. I also had massive bruising so will get arnica to help

[fairgo45]

Yes I had this after stents these two little cherry sized things appeared on my wrist. It did need an operation but it was no big deal and good as new now

[BorderTerri in reply to fairgo45]

👍

[Ducky2003]

I had excessive bleeding following my ablation. I had to compress the site myself, still half groggy from the sedation, whilst the nurse cleared off for half an hour.The bleed did stop eventually and I was sent home.

A few days later the bruising was increasing into my pubic area and down my leg to my foot. I contacted the hospital and was told to go in and up to cardiology.

As luck would have it, the guy who had performed my ablation was there and recognised me. He had a look and requested an urgent vascular ultrasound and even wheeled me down to the scan himself.

They think there had been continued bleeding internally but, thankfully, it had stopped by that point.

I can second the recommendation for arnica. My entire leg was various shades of black, blue and purple and the skin incredibly tender but the arnica cream worked wonders.

[BorderTerri in reply to Ducky2003]

Thank you for sharing. Very similar to me but I was advised to go to A&E…7 hours later I was seen and urgently triaged

[DawnTX in reply to Ducky2003]

I hope you’re doing much better now. Ducky I have been lucky. I forget the name of the item, but they place something like a plug that eventually goes away on its own. This is how they control the bleeding. The first cat I ever had they did sandbags and hand compression. What a difference I did not even have any soreness. I want to say it begins with the letter V I wish I had the pamphlet I have not had to ask for one. It seems like here it is just normal procedure now whether it is in the groin or wherever.

the silly thing was no one bothered to tell my attending when I was in recovery. They thought I had a hematoma and kept trying to flatten it. I was trying to tell them then luckily my doctor came along and stopped them from hurting me. They were pressing so much most of the hospitals are teaching hospitals, so it’s not unusual to get watching or even stepping in. They are not invasive. It’s kind of nice to have all the attention so that if one person misses something another should catch it.

I’m sorry for those of you who have had this issue every day I am thankful that just about everything went perfectly during my procedures except for one cardioversion and one ablation. I’m still here. I tell people I am like crabgrass I will keep popping up.

when I had my first cath with my Cardiologist in Florida he surprised me by using my wrist. Between that and the cocktail they gave lol I actually had a good time in there. I had such an adorable with a sense of humor. He had such an awful he was nine hours behind with. I could’ve gone home but after being prepped, I wasn’t leaving. They gave me a lovely room to wait out my time I teased my doctor and told him for running so late he owed me a breast reduction lol I am rather in doubt and we have laughed a couple of times when he has gone to something and they’ve been in the way, lol I’ve learned to have a sense of humor about them and he had the same. After the procedure, I had a Band-Aid if you looked, you could not even see where he had gone through. What was funny about this is I had the worst nurse in the world I think putting the IV in. My arm was bruised and a mess for about two weeks after her on the same procedure. Oh the stories we can tell. evidently I’m funny even or maybe even more so when I’ve had the cocktail to relax lol my first ablation in I had three nurses that loved me. They couldn’t wait to come in and meet me. Evidently there about in recovery and how entertaining I was. For whatever reason I got quite involved in watching the big fill up making sure my bladder was working because they told me I could not go anywhere until I did. I wasn’t just watching it. I was at living with it because it reminded me of a beer Stein lol

things don’t have to be so dramatic and scary. It’s all in your mind lol. I worked in law enforcement. You had to find a way to survive things you were dealing with or you would not be good for anyone. I’ve been assured I’m not as crazy as I thought I was lol we all have ways of surviving.

I hope you are doing so much better now I look back to my first episode. One thing I would like to remind people take things step-by-step or you will overwhelm yourself. I just had a friend say she didn’t think she would survive. I explain to her how I do just like trying to eat an elephant as they say you do it one bite at a time not that I would eat a beautiful elephant. It’s like a big mountain 1 foot in front of the other and you will get to where you want to be.

I never knew I had this in me by the way and now that I know it and I’m figuring things out I tried to share to help other people get through things. I think the best thing is to not think too much about stuff. We never know what is going to get thrown at us anyway. as I said to someone the other day when they were worried about when they would die. I have been terrified at the thought of dying. I don’t know why I got into thinking about it, but it scared me. Then it hit me. I don’t have a date stamped on me. I don’t know when it’s gonna happen. You could have the worst disease going that could possibly do it to you, but in the meantime, you might come out of your house go to get into your car and get hit by a bus. So again I try not to think about it too much. A fib is just another thing that hits us in life like a headache or a divorce so many things happen quickly you can either spend your life worrying about them if they happen or you can enjoy life.