HEART RHYTHM COMMUNITY
Anybody consider medical tourism to ablate PACs?

Anybody consider medical tourism to ablate PACs?

I am a healthy 48 y/o male with some atrial rhythm issues since 2001 (PACs, episodic atrial fibrillation, episodic atrial flutter). Until my afib started to happen more frequently last fall, the PACs had the biggest impact on my life (the early beat and subsequent pause cause such a vile squeezing sensation, as well as irritation to my lungs, that it's just not something I can imagine living with).

I had a PV ablation on January 12. Although it was intended primarily to end my then frequent afib and flutter episodes, my personal main hope was that it would end the PACS (and the EP was well aware of this). In fact, the ablation eliminated all my heart arrhythmia issues for 9 glorious weeks, at which point the PACs just suddenly reappeared as though they were returning from a brief holiday.

At the 3 month follow up, my EP said that the return of the PACs is an indication of signal leakage. That is, the ablation scars healed too well or are otherwise not blocking all the errant signals. He said a touch-up may be necessary, but not if the only manifestation of the leakage are PACs.

He asked me if I could live with PACs, and I indicated that it seemed unlikely to me (I've had days where I was in bigeminy for 50% of the time, and experiencing more normal spacing of PACs the rest of the time). He mentioned beta blockers and calcium channel blockers, but as I had no luck with those from 2005-2006, I indicated I had no interest. He indicated that my symptoms (the squeeze during the early beat and subsequent pause) are not typical, or at least he seemed surprised at my description of them.

So I am starting to wonder what I could do if 6 more months go by and I still have these PACs and no respectable US doctor is willing to do the touch-up necessary to eliminate them for good. I was wondering if anyone has considered medical tourism (to India, Turkey, Mexico, etc.) to get touch-ups to mostly successful but somewhat leaky ablations.
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