Catheter Ablation for PVC's

Hi Everyone,

After years of suffering from PVC's, I'm finally entertaining the idea of having a catheter ablation procedure done in hopes to eliminate my forever bothering PVC's.

Has anyone had this procedure done for PVC's?

Was it successful?

Did you suffer from any of the risks?

Thanks so much for your help!

Rachel

4 Comments

I said no

by BillMFl - 2009-01-29 04:01:00

I have relatively frequent, but short runs of SVT and PVC. Enough to be unsettling, but not enough to seriously disrupt my life. My now ex cardiologist hired an electro burner into his practice and suddenly I was being urged to have an ablation. I immediately decided to get a second opinion and my now new cardiologist said fine, if and only if you first exhaust all noninvasive options, and if and only if your lifestyle/ health is significantly impacted. So for now at least, I'm gonna slide rather than take the ablation ride. But this decision is soooo variable from one person to another. It is not risk free (no cardiac cath procedure is risk free) and the end result can vary all over the place. You will find lots of people here with a wide variety of results. So its not an easy decision. Long and/or severe runs can be hazardous to your health and can obviously diminish the quality of your life. So far for me its a no, but I know that when it works well, its a huge improvement for many. From the sounds of what you are saying, if you could get a guarantee that it would work, you would probably go for it. I don't think anybody can give you that 100% guarantee. I would love to see some actual %statistics on how many were "cured", how many were no better, and how many were worse off. Does anybody know if any valid studies have been done?

Sorry you've got those darn PVC's

by Angelie - 2009-01-29 04:01:10

I've had them all of my life. I'm 33. I don't think it's anything that you ever get "used" to, just something that you kind of learn to deal with.
Rachel, here's my honesty history and maybe it will enlighten you just a bit.
First EP study and ablation, complete failure.
Second EP study, ablation including partial sinus-node ablation. It worked for a bout a year, and then symptoms returned. That doctor was the first to be right smack honest with me when he said "please know about the only real risk in having this done is that it might not work"
3rd EP study, mapping and ablation. 3 times a charm, I knew all of the possible side effects. I understood all of the risks. I learned as my husband had tears in his eyes when he told me afterwards that something terribly went wrong during the ablation. I knew something was wrong because it was hard to breathe, and it felt like someone had gone in and rearranged all of my internal organs, but what happened was the doc accidentally froze my phrenic nerve with a 82 below zero cryo-ablation cath. After he hit my phrenic nerve, the procedure was aborted, and was labeled unsuccessful.
I now have a pacemaker, take a bunch of medicine and STILL have problems.
I'm not telling you this to scare you. I just want someone to be honest and tell you ALL the possibilities. Out of all of the risks, and "what could go wrongs" ablations are fairly safe. Nothing can be done without risks, but without risks one enevr really knows what's indeed on the other side.
My middle name is Murphy's Law, meaning if something can go wrong, it's going to happen to me. I have absolutely a heart that beats 90 to nothing, and it's very stubborn- just like my personality. I also, later as my doctor discovered, have weird anatomy and my phrenic nerve- which controls my diaphragm- is in the wrong location as wasn't even suppose to be where he was ablating. Just a little bit of information that he didn't know until he got inside my heart.

This, dear heart, is just one story. After all that I've been through, I still say that the biggest risk is that you'll go through all of that.......(including costs- very $$$) only for it not to work.
But.....there's always a big but. They do work for some people. Some people never have symptoms ever again after they're ablations. Some, like me, get rid of symptoms only for them to return a few months to years later. Some other people, like me, also suffer from residule effects from failed ablations that didn't work for some reason or another.
It's worth a shot. It's up to you. Oddly enough, I find myself facing yet another one as well.
Hope my story helps you out some.
Angelie

My story

by janetinak - 2009-01-30 02:01:55

I had a similiar situation to DD above. After 2 yrs of Afib with SOB, fatigue & generally "yucky" (very professional word but fit) trying cardioversions & meds w/o any help I went for AV node ablation & PM as left 100% dependent. I had to have it done twice w/in few months as my Afib was over-riding the PM but it worked 2nd time. That was in 10/00 & 1/01 & all my symptoms went away & stayed away since. May they all stay away forever. My advice is find an EP with a lot of experience & then realize what your getting into. I am glad it worked for me but it surely is an individual decision. Good luck.

Janet

Thank you

by Rachel316 - 2009-01-31 01:01:36

Thank you all very much. After reading all of the posts, I think I am leaning more towards no. I do not want to be 100% dependent or have permenant damage. Although, they definitely are diminishing the quality of my life. A few things that I want to share with all of you.

This is a website on a case study of ablations, where most of them seemed to be affective.

http://europace.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/eun184v1

And another one:

http://www.nature.com/ncpcardio/journal/v5/n5/full/ncpcardio1180.html

Below I've pasted another case study of ablations:

SUMMARY
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate if radiofrequency catheter ablation is an effective procedure for the treatment of right ventricular outflow tract premature ventricular contraction (RVOT-PVC) and ascertain if it results in an improvement of symptoms.
METHODS: A prospective study with 30 consecutive patients (mean age 40 ± 13 years, 25 females), with no apparent structural cardiopathy, with very frequent (mean density of 1,263 ± 593/h) RVOT-PVC, symptomatic for more than one year (mean = 74 months) and resistant to antiarrhythmic drugs (3 ± 1.7, including beta-blockers), who underwent radiofrequency catheter ablation.
RESULTS: After the first procedure, there were 23 initial successful cases (76.6%) and 7 initial failures (23.4%). Four patients experienced relapses, two of whom did not undergo the second procedure. The second procedure was carried out in 9 patients (7 initial failures and 2 relapses), and there was success in 5 additional patients, one of them by epicardial access. The final success rate was 80% (24/30), and there were no major complications. After a mean follow-up of 14 ± 6 months, in the successful group there was a reduction greater than 90% in density of premature ventricular contractions (PVC) (24/24; p<0.0001) and a resulting absence of symptoms in the majority of patients (23/24; p<0.001).
CONCLUSION: Radiofrequency catheter ablation is a safe and effective treatment for patients with persistent and symptomatic PVC with RVOT morphology.
Key words: Catheter ablation; premature ventricular contractions; arrhythmia; heart ventricles.


Also, I've found some successful case studies on accupuncture helping with symptoms

http://www.bluepoppy.com/cfwebstorefb/index.cfm/fuseaction/feature.display/feature_id/1259/index.cfm


I hope this info helps all of you as you've helped me.

Rachel

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