EPT n RFA

i'm a 54 yrs, suffrng from palpitation since my age of 20 and a diabetic from the past 15yrs. recently my doctors suggested me an EPS test and then itself they would do an RFA. But i'm not told of the consequences which would take place later. But being a diabetic, i'm afraid of undergoing RFA because i have read about the potential complications in a website. He says that taking drugs wouldn't lead to permanent cure. I have no problem of taking drugs but i dont want to take risk of RFA. plz help


This discussion is related to Feeling heart beats.

[Jerry_NJ]

You are right to consider an ablation procedure with careful consideration of the risk/gain factor.  You didn't say how effective the doctor thinks the RFA will be, or if it is in the right side or left side of the heart. If in the right side the risk is much lower, I understand.  That's where much of the work is done.  The other factor is how ofton do you have palpitations, I believe they have to stimulate the error signal when in your heart to find the right point(s) to ablate.  That is anothe factor in determining the probability of success I think.

Keep in mind too, while ablation is permanent for the ablated site, it does not prevent the formation of new error paths in the future.

I have AFib, the most risky and lowest probability for success of the ablations (I believe) and as my symptoms are mild, I am only taking drugs to lower my ventricle heart rate (a beta blocker) and to reduce cloting, a serious side-effect of being in AFib.