treatment of PVC's

[maryjane51]

Are beta-blckers the only treatment for PVC's?  Is a defibilator an option?  I was diagnosed with activity induced PVC's.  The dr. recommended cardio rehab and a beta blocker.  These PVC's are constant
and are interfering with the least of activities, ie walking after getting out of bed, showereing, vaccumming etc.

[Mom2four85]

Is a defribrillator an option? Yes it's an option, but it's for severe cases and malignant potentially life threatening ones; that's in under 1% of cases.

Have you gotten your test results to see how many, what kind and indeed to make sure you're having them constantly and exactly what's going on.

I was dx with malignant frequent pvc's - over 54,000 daily (polymorphic VT), which was "constantly" every 3rd beat sometimes more often, scary, frustrating and just plain a hassle to deal with.

What tests have you had done? It would be helpful and maybe put your mind at ease if you don't have your test results to get them and see if you can find other triggers.

[itdood]

The treatment method for PVCs is stepped through by
1.  diagnosing them on EKG
2.  Categorizing them into a few buckets that assess their risk and impact.
3.  tailoring the treatment to reduce risk

There are several medical interventions.

Low risk meds:  Beta blockers and calcium channel blockers are the first line of defense.  They work for some.  They have low side effects and can be titrated up and down easily.  These are effective for some. These would be used for the full range of PVCs but most likely to stop at this point for benign-infrequent-isolated PVCs (which it sounds like fits your diagnoses)

Medium risk surgery:  Ablation is a surgery that buzzes out the cells causing the PVCs.  Ablation will have higher success on Unifocal PVCs (i.e. originating from one spot), lower success on multifocal (i.e. originating in more than one spot).  If the PVCs are unifocal you can attempt an ablation on benign infrequent isolated PVCs.  I personally would not.

High risk meds: Anti arrhythmic meds.    I would consider it unethical to use this class of meds on benign infrequent isolated PVCs.

If there was a magic pill you could take to make them stop would you take it?  I'm sure the answer is yes, but think about it this way.  The cause of the PVCs are backup pacer cells in your ventricles.  If you took a med that disabled the ability of these pacers to fire (thus stopping the PVCs), you'd have no backup system in case the SA or AV node failed to get a beat signal to the ventricles.  You'd arrest, lights out before you hit the floor.  This is the catch 22 in seeking the holy grail magic pill in treating them.

For benign-infrequent-isolated PVCs a way to lessen their frequency is life style and trigger control.  I could post a book on this but it's near my bed time.  using the search here on medhelp you will find a huge knowledge base on effective life style changes and trigger identification.