afib ablations

I work on a floor that recovers pt who have afib ablations.  We have a high number of pts who require pericardial windows and/or open heart surgery to repair tears or lesion that occur during the procedure.  Is there anyone that can tell me if that is normal.


This discussion is related to Effectiveness and saftey of ablation for atrial firbrillation.

[ireneo]

With any procedure or surgery there will be risks. I do believe statistics show that the risks associated with ablations are quite small. I've had 3 ablations and had no problems at all. Ablations for a-fib are done a bit differently but I haven't heard of anyone having such things as tears or needing open heart surgery. Perhaps the "maze" is done with an open chest surgery ( although I thought that was now available in a minimally invasive style) but that's different than open heart. Perhaps there is some connection to the doctors doing the procedures - not as experienced or it's in a teaching setting.