GI issues after PFA

There is some risk of esophageal damage or phrenic nerve damage after an ablation using RF energy....but the literature boasts that PFA doesn't present this danger to patients. It's supposed to be an advantage of PFA over RF. In fact, it isn't normally necessary to have a trans-esophageal echocardiogram (TEE) while a PFA is being performed, whereas it is often/normally done during RF ablations to ensure the energy isn't getting near those two items. So, just on the face of it, objectively (and I have no medical training), I tend to see your PCP's side of it. This is something else building, and it may have been the cause of your arrhythmia when it all boils down.

There is a common logical fallacy known formally in the literature as 'post hoc, ergo propter hoc.' In English, 'after this, so because of this.' What you experienced came after a procedure, so your mind grasps for apparent links and has decided that the PFA must have caused the change that came right after it. Not so! Or rather, not necessarily.

When I finished my ablations (I had to have two within months of each other). I was prescribed pantoprazole for two weeks as a measure against reflux 'in case the esophagus was a wee bit peevish over some radio energy that got to it', but I was also to take a tsp of 'sucralfate' solution, sweet, sticky, white by mouth about half an hour prior to a substantial meal. This went on for as long as the bottle lasted, and I recall about three weeks.