Cardiac Ablation

[kellyq]

I am a 43 yr old female, slightly overweight since i stopped smoking in 2003 and i keep having episodes of pvc's and racing heart. First time i had racing heart was in 2003 and my heart rate was 185. Was put on toprol xl 25mg and i take xanax when i have a spell. Well 3 nights ago i had another spell with racing heart that went on for 3 hrs so i went to hospital, heart rate was 180 and was given medicine that stops the heart and gets it back in rhythm twice, didn't work. Was given verapamil, no good. Finally was given cardizem i think is how you spell it, and some ativan and it finally went back to normal. Talk about scary. Well i was told it is an electrical problem in the top of the heart and that it is very common and non life threatening. Didn't feel that way to me at the time though. Was told that cardiac ablation would stop all the pvc's and racing heart. I was wondering if anyone has had this done and if it works. I am willing to try anything at this point, these things have literally ruined my life. I am in fear everyday that it is going to happen again and not go back to normal. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[Cleveland Clinic]

There are various types of SVTs which are very amenable to an ablation procedure, in which an electrophysiologist performs an electrical study of the heart, and then finds what the cause of the SVT is and ablates it. The frequency of success depends on the cause of the arrhythmia, but even given all comers is still >90%. Understand that this procedure is performed to help your symptoms not necessarily because the SVT is life threatening. And it probably won't affect your PVCs at all.

[kellyq]

Is this a fairly safe and common procedure??