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Any Ablation Success Stories?

Posted by jimhealthy @jimhealthy, Aug 19 4:28pm

Hi ... I'm new to this forum and see a lot of postings about ablation failures. Does anyone have a success story about their ablation? I've had two cardioversions due to AFIB and am being encouraged to get an ablation by my heart doc. I am currently on amiodarone until my ablation, at which time I'll be switched to dofetilide for the rest of my life. I hate these drugs because they won't allow me to play tennis (dues to breathlessness and fatigue). Tennis is my passion and joy, and it is a great loss to be without it.

I'm wondering if anyone on this platform has had a successful ablation that has allowed you to exercise intensively without being on an antiarrhythmic drug? I would love to hear about your experience.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Heart Rhythm Conditions Support Group.

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gloaming | @gloaming | Aug 27 12:53pm
In reply to @nevets "I checked out a few of Dr Lee's videos. They're ok. The one about skipped beats..." + (show)
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I checked out a few of Dr Lee's videos. They're ok. The one about skipped beats (PVCs and PACs) was fairly informative and reassuring, although he didn't address the significance of PVC or PAC burden. I also thought he could use better visual aids in explaining heart anatomy. Too much hand waving. Those stock images and animated clips of a beating heart and fire-fighters battling forest fires, weren't particularly informative.

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Burden is something I have been looking at for a couple of years now trying to nail it down in a range. I have read several articles and have found that they're a bit wishy-washy about stating a definitive number above which is can be considered onerous or even dangerous. I saw one claiming that anything over 3% is a cause for concern over time. I've seen 10%, and as low as 70 ectopic beats in a 24 hour period. So I think they're still sorting this problem out and Dr. Lee just doesn't speak to it clearly for fear of being called out over his decision to call X as a burden.

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nevets | @nevets | Aug 27 1:41pm

Well, assuming you are correct about there not being a consensus about the significance of PVC /PAC burden, it may have been good for Dr Lee to tell us about it and perhaps suggest why burden is still a gray area.

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gloaming | @gloaming | Aug 27 7:11pm
In reply to @nevets "Well, assuming you are correct about there not being a consensus about the significance of PVC..." + (show)
Profile picture for nevets @nevets

Well, assuming you are correct about there not being a consensus about the significance of PVC /PAC burden, it may have been good for Dr Lee to tell us about it and perhaps suggest why burden is still a gray area.

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Not that there is no 'significance' to a ectopic burden, but what amount of it in 24 hours is considered to be sufficiently onerous that it should be handled, say by an ablation. As for Dr. Lee, he's putting out a lot of videos lately, so perhaps he'll tackle that subject. I put comments in some of his videos hoping he'll see them and address a question in a subsequent edition, but I haven't seen a response of that kind yet.

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