What is the treatment after cardioversion procedure for atrial flutter

Posted by jimmycm @jimmycm, Feb 6 10:18pm

I had a cardioversion procedure procedure for a cardio flutter diagnosis. I am still on a blood thinner prescription. Is this a typical treatment response?

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Yes, at least for a while, and perhaps for the rest of your life. The reason is that an SVT/tachyarrhythmia raises your risk of a stroke. There's truthfully still a lot of discussion about this, and I just saw a new study suggesting that the medical establishment needs to revise downward their assignment of a risk factor for those whose arrhythmias are paroxysmal AND that last less than 3 hours at a time. For the time being, the protocol is to ask patients with arrhythmias to take a DOAC like apixaban or rivaroxaban and to do it until either the risk is deemed to be miniscule due to treatments and interventions or until the disorder remedies itself, apparently, and no further arrhythmias are recorded over time. Either way, this would take months to determine, and it should be on the advice of the person from whom you are receiving expert care.

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@gloaming

Yes, at least for a while, and perhaps for the rest of your life. The reason is that an SVT/tachyarrhythmia raises your risk of a stroke. There's truthfully still a lot of discussion about this, and I just saw a new study suggesting that the medical establishment needs to revise downward their assignment of a risk factor for those whose arrhythmias are paroxysmal AND that last less than 3 hours at a time. For the time being, the protocol is to ask patients with arrhythmias to take a DOAC like apixaban or rivaroxaban and to do it until either the risk is deemed to be miniscule due to treatments and interventions or until the disorder remedies itself, apparently, and no further arrhythmias are recorded over time. Either way, this would take months to determine, and it should be on the advice of the person from whom you are receiving expert care.

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Gloaming, I was told that AFib raises your risk of stroke but that other types of PSVT (ARNT, etc.) do not present any stroke risk. Your comment suggests otherwise. Please clarify. Thank you. Cedarbog

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A good question. Any tachyarrhythmia that includes the left atrium, which SVTs of a type do, means that blood doesn't get circulated through the LAA properly (Left Atrial Appendage). This one spot, like a shallow grotto on the extreme upper left of the atrium, is where most of the risk of a stroke originates, and it is all due to poorly circulating blood in that pocket. If you have only PVCs, or VT (ventricular tachycardia), but your atria are beating in concert with electrical signals issuing from the SA node (Sino-Atrial node), then the risk of stroke is essentially absent, at least from the LAA. I don't know if there are other stroke risks associated with a tachyarrhythmia in either ventricle.

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I do not agree you to have take blood thinners the rest of your life. Maybe if you are 85. You didn't say how old you are or how long ago you had an a cardioversion. I had Aflutter and only used aspirin after a cardioversion. Then after increasing Aflutters I had an Aflutter ablation in 2012 and it has never reoccured. Aflutter ablations have a very high rate of cure: in the 99% range. Years later I developed Afib. I was warned about afib after the Aflutter Ablation. That said I came off blood thinners about 9 months after the aflutter ablation.
Years later I have had my go around with Afib and had to restart blood thinners when I began to having events. I had an Afib ablation in 2019. A year later I came off blood thinner. I had a couple of brief episodes of Afb over the next couple of years which required short term use of blood thinner. Then afib became more problematic in 2014 and I had to return to blood thinners. I just had my 2nd Afib ablation in Sept 2024. But it is way too soon to think about coming off blood thinners. I am still healing. I'll discuss it with the doc down the road. I am 77 and have a great doc.

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Aflutter has a lower rate of blood clots than Afib. There are numerous articles showing that difference.
" Cerebrovascular accidents differ between patients with atrial flutter and patients with atrial fibrillation". https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34900038/ Conclusions: Disabling or fatal IS was observed less often in patients with AFl than in patients with AF. This finding can possibly be explained by the more frequent occurrence of lacunar strokes in the AFl group compared with that in the AF group.
"Comparative Risks of Ischemic Stroke in Atrial Flutter versus Atrial Fibrillation"
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29223550/
"Conclusions: Patients with atrial flutter faced a lower risk of ischemic stroke than patients with atrial fibrillation. "

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Yes it is, but you can replace your prescription blood thinner w/ Garligin, giner and garlic, works great 1/5 the price, no side effects, I haved used it for years, I have ventricular tachycardia and fibrillation.

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@harveywj

I do not agree you to have take blood thinners the rest of your life. Maybe if you are 85. You didn't say how old you are or how long ago you had an a cardioversion. I had Aflutter and only used aspirin after a cardioversion. Then after increasing Aflutters I had an Aflutter ablation in 2012 and it has never reoccured. Aflutter ablations have a very high rate of cure: in the 99% range. Years later I developed Afib. I was warned about afib after the Aflutter Ablation. That said I came off blood thinners about 9 months after the aflutter ablation.
Years later I have had my go around with Afib and had to restart blood thinners when I began to having events. I had an Afib ablation in 2019. A year later I came off blood thinner. I had a couple of brief episodes of Afb over the next couple of years which required short term use of blood thinner. Then afib became more problematic in 2014 and I had to return to blood thinners. I just had my 2nd Afib ablation in Sept 2024. But it is way too soon to think about coming off blood thinners. I am still healing. I'll discuss it with the doc down the road. I am 77 and have a great doc.

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I'm glad you have a great doctor that really helps a lot in your confidence level and how you feel positively. It sounds like you're afib comes back when you stop the blood thinner is there a problem with the blood thinner

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You said "It sounds like you're afib comes back when you stop the blood thinner is there a problem with the blood thinner".
No this is not true. I managed for years to take Eliquis only occasionally as soon as the Afib event started. If my event was less than 12 hours I took eliquis for 24 hours: just 2 doses. If my event lasted longer than 12 hours I would take eliquis of 30 days.
When Afib became more frequent it just didn't make sense to stop and restart. Ex: Ablation 2019 May. I stopped eliquis 9 months after the ablation at the end of 2019. From Jan 2020 to Oct 2023 I only had 3 brief Afib events that required eliquis in that almost 4 year period. Then I began to have an Afib event every 3~6 weeks resulting in the 2nd ablation in Sept 2024. So it was obvious my ablation was failing. Therefore I made the decision to stay on eliquis continually due to the increasing frequency of Afib. All those events I self converted and none had a heart rate above 90 and none lasted at the most 3 days with the least event @ 18 hours. Because I have Factor V Leiden I have an increase risk of clotting ( x 5 ) without Afib. When in Afib that increase multiples another 5 fold. That is too significant from my perspective to risk a clot. During this whole period from the 1st ablation in May 2019 to Sept 2024 I never once went to the ER and always self-converted. I am one of those people who immediately feels when I go into Afib. I would record the event on Kardia and send the pdf to my doc via My Chart so they had a record of it. I was in continuous contact with them as well as yearly visits and a couple of ECHOs because I also have a LBBB. My LBBB remains stable so far.

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