@cedarbog If that statistic is true, it would almost certainly be that they don't get accepted as a candidate for an ablation, either by a potentially referring cardiologist or by the electrophysiologist him/herself. If one is refused for the operation or referral, then the patient lives, or suffers. as he/she is until their natural death.

This might only mean that most EPs don't feel SVT is dangerous, or they have personal poor records of success ablating SVT, or the patients move on with their lives and die unannounced. This was the problem with AF (atrial fibrillation) until about 20 years ago. Polled cardiologists and electrophysiologists told the surveying team that few, if any, of their arrhythmia patients came back after being prescribed drugs to help the problem. It wasn't until that research team began following up with as many such patients as they could find that they learned many of them had simply died within about five years. This would be typical of patients who were led to believe there was little anyone could do for them, and that chemical intervention was all they could be offered. As anyone who researches AF will soon see, it's a progressive disorder that can, not will, but CAN, result in heart failure if it progresses to the last stage called 'permanent' AF.

We have come a long way in 20 years. Not only has our understanding of arrhythmia improved, but so has our treatment of it. SVT is correctable, and should be, for the majority of patients. All it takes is seeing the right specialist who has experience in complex cases. Not all cardiologists are A-list, and the same can be said about electrophysiologists. It behooves the savvy and determined patient to start doing some fact-finding, including about whom within a day's driving time, or two hours flight time, is likely to be able to help you due to their skills and experience.

@cedarbog
My cousin was never told by any doctor in 30-40 years of SVT episodes that there was a solution. Also, she did not seek medical care with each episode as I think they were relatively short maybe 1-3 hours and far apart. It wasn’t until she was airlifted to a hospital that a cardiologist told her he could easily fix that with ablation. She immediately signed up and was cured. So I would love to see a breakdown of reasons those 85% don’t get ablation. Maybe they didn’t even know about ablation. Maybe their episodes are years apart? Maybe fear of the unknown. Who knows, but I’m betting more details would shed some light.