Mapping and ablation tomorrow. Advice Please!

[kozlosap]

My daughter (aged 25) is having her study and ablation procedure tomorrow at Northwestern in Chicago.  She has idiopathic pvcs at 30,000 per 24 hour period and NO tachy.  They started 8 weeks ago out of the blue.  Beta blocker therapy did not work and she was referred for an ablation almost immediately.  The cardiologist stated that without the ablation, she would most likely develop cardiomyopothy (sp) within a year.  She exhibits the pvcs on a continuous basis most of the time with couplets and trigenimi.  Does anyone have any idea how long her procedures will take?  What is the success rate for ablation for idiopathic pvcs sans Tachy?  Any help would be much appreciated.  Almost all the article I have read deal with VT and there is very little on plain old pvc ablations.  Thanks - April (on my way from Northern California to cold Chicago as I write).

[kozlosap]

Thanks so much for the encouragement!  After he went over her file, the EP moved her to the last case on the schedule today so he wouldn't back up other cases:(
I will tell her what you said about being a whimp!  Thanks everyone for giving Mom some confidence.

[LG42]

sorry, my post should read " and they did NOT burn it" :( meaning they burned 12 of the wrong spots trying to get to it, but unfortunately did not.

[LG42]

Hi there:
Hey there-
I'm a 32 year old female who never knew I had wpw until one day I woke up and all of the sudden I felt dizzy and my heart wouldn't relax and I got all sweaty and felt hot and I yelled to my husband who came in and said I just started bobbing around until I fell over.
He brought me into the bedroom where I apparently was not breathing was turning blue and had no pulse. He did a rescue breath on me and I came back.
Anyhow I had an ablation procedure and we found out that my defect is on the left side and in the coronary sinus. They tried for 8 hours and did burn it :(
Needless to say I'm on flecainide 100 2x a day and 25 toprol 1x a day. I absolutely hate the side effects from the meds. I have vision disturbances, no appetite, no energy (although even though I was a gym rat, my energy level had been really bad the past year or so leading up to this), chest tightness, and increased anxiety. When I was on a higher level of metroprolol (before I switched to the name brand toprol) I had great bouts with depression and severe cloudy thoughts. Also right now it is hard for me to fall asleep before 4am no matter how exhausted I am.
I have had 2 trips to the ER since coming home from the surgery .Once the day after and once a few nights ago. But I have had a few episodes where the tightness in my chest makes me have my hubby drive me to the Er parking lot just in case. Anyways, I just wanted to touch base with you and see if you have any thoughts about my situation. Thanks!
One thing I wanted to mention is that the procedure is very safe (and I'm a wimp). I was even awake and chatting with them for the first 3 hours of it! If hers is in an easy spot, then it will be quick! My recovery from the procedure was very rapid, and I was on the table for almost 8 hours! The most paiinful part is in the groin area and that pain starts to go away within 24 to 48 hours.

[Mom2four85]

Not sure how much this will help, but I had over 50,000 pvc's in a 24 hr period, Vtach; bigeminy, trigeminy, couplets, triplets, salvo's (4+).

I thought with that amount I'd be in alot longer than it took.  I had a few complications (which is very rare) and my ablation only took about 4 1/2 hours.  The complication rate is very small; I believe under 1%, but as with any surgery there is a chance for complications.

The success rate depends on where they are located and the skill of the surgeon, but most quote 95% success rate on average, although I've read different numbers.

At her rate of 30,000 if they continued there is certainly the chance to develop cardiomyopathy; I developed Non - ischemic cardiomyopathy, but it's also rare for that to happen.

Good luck and I hope she has a quick recovery.