how long does an ABLATION take?

[sylviayasgur]

hi all,
joey is scheduled to go in for an ablation at nyc's mt.sinai hospital with dr. mehta.
they are supposed to have all the new state of the art equipment and methods. they have also recruited numerous big names who now operate out of mt. sinai, dr. paul stelzer being one of them (formerly at beth israel hospital). dr. gomes was a big name in electrophysiology at mt. sinai before they revamped.
in any case, dr. mehta told us that they take an mri of joey's heart and super-impose it onto the photo of joey's heart as they are doing the ablation_ kind of like mapping it out.
he explained briefly what they do and told us that the whole procedure would be done under general anesthesia (joey may not move at all)and that it would take 4-6 hours.
i don't know enough about this procedure but i was always under the impression that this procedure normally takes 1-3 hours and it is done under "twilight"/semi-conscious sedation (as in when they do a cath). they also told us they plan on placing two caths, one on each side, one for the ablation and one to monitor the temperature as not to injure the esophagus which is right near where the ablation is being done.
also, they mentioned joey will have to be on coumadin for several weeks after the procedure and now i hear from others that this may be an understatement.

we are seeing dr. levine at st. francis hospital this coming tuesday for a second opinion, but joey is set on dr. mehta.
any info or knowledge about this procedure and what i described above is appreciated.
none of the antiarrhytmic drugs (other than amio) have done the trick so this is joey's
last hope to eliminate afib (he'd prefer not to take coumadin full time).

i thank you for all your help and support. i'm, once again, feeling so lost on this subject matter...scared and anxious. feels like his surgery all over again, sitting and waiting for hours...
be well, sylvia

[Lily]

Hi Sylvia - I can imagine your anxiety. Several here have had ablations and I've recently read here that ablations can sometimes take several hours. I hope this works for Joey! Best wishes to you both

[kfay]

Sylvia, I had my ablations done at the Mayo clinic. I think I posted about them to you before. i had no sedation whatsoever, but that was because we knew my arrhythmias were going to be difficult to track down and we didn't want any drugs to scare them away. However, my understanding is normally, they do use a twilight and only use general if some sort of problem develops. In fact, they had me sign a permission form for general "just in case". In all honesty, he'll be more comfortable if they are going to knock him out. It is very hard to lie that still all day.

They place all of their patients on full strength aspirin afterwards for 3 months, but I can't take aspirin, so they did put me on coumadin, I want to say for 3 months, but now that I think about it, that can't be right because I went back for my second ablation in 3 months and I wasn't on it. Maybe my local cardio told me to get off of it because it thought it was silly anyway.

One of my ablations lasted 7 hours and the other 8, but again, that's because what they were searching for was difficult to find. I wouldn't think his would be anywhere near that long, but definitely longer than you were thinking. Plus, just the set up for all of that takes at least an hour+ before they can even get started and if they are doing an MRI before, that will be another hour, so just be prepared to wait, but know that they aren't doing stuff to him for alot of that time. I had caths on both sides as well as my neck.

I know it's scary for you to think about going through all this again, but I promise you, it is nothing compared to heart surgery. Really, it isn't. He'll be fine. I'm very hopeful that they find the spot that needs to be ablated and he can finally get some relief. Good luck!

[Duffey]

Good luck, Sylvia, going forth and best wishes to Joey on an easy, fast ablation. I'll keep you all in my thoughts and prayers until he's past this.

[sylviayasgur]

thank you all for your prayers and wishes; it means so much to me.
kfay, thank you so much for your reassuring message. i haven't been on much these past few months and have been out of touch.
although it will be frightening, i now feel so much better knowing that what i believed would be the case actually is the case.... time for prep, keeping still for that long, etc.
i hear so many different stories that it makes me feel so much better to hear one that resembles what was described to us by our dr.
thank you again for your support and all the hand-holding you all offer here. it's what makes this such a special place and family.
sylvia

[Bryan B]

Sylvia,

I responded before but I will give you my experience again. I had A-Flutter which I guess is different than A-Fib but the same general problem with the electrical impulses within the heart misfiring. I first went in for cardioversion but they found a clot in my left atrium and had to abort. The second time I went in they decided to do the ablation. Both times they did a TEE to make sure no clots were present. I do not remember anything about either procedure but whatever they gave me was through my IV and not by mask. My ablation took approximately 2 hours but I am sure it varies depending on the complexity of the condition. I only had one catheter as I believe the problem I had was more isolated. I did have to stay still for 6 hours after the procedure. Because of the clot they found the first time I was on Coumadin for 6 weeks before they would try again. After the procedure I was on Coumadin for another 6 weeks as a precaution. I found it no big deal and the range they wanted me in was 2-3 and I usually ran in the low to mid 3's which they said was fine.

Good luck to you and Joey. If the ablation is successful he will get instant relief.

[sylviayasgur]

thank you all so so much for your help, support, kind words and sharing.
will keep you posted as to how things progress. we're meeting with another electrophysiologist
on tuesday who will most likely explain things in his own way. it will be our 2nd opinion, but good to hear from others.
thanks so much for all you do.
be well, sylvia

[Johnz]

Hi Sylvia and Joey,
I had an ablation for ventricular tachycardia with Dr. Mehta at Mt. Sinai last February. He and his entire team were superb. The lab was space age. It was my second ablation (the first was performed at another hospital a year earlier and was unsuccessful). I remember being kept slightly, dreamily awake for the entire procedure. I wanted them to use less anesthesia in the hope that they would be able to stimulate my heart to go into the irregular rhythym. They have to get you into the exact arrythmia so they can then map and locate the source in the heart and zap it. My first ablation failed because they never managed to get me into the proper arrythmia.
This time it worked. However, it took several hours and I never stayed in the proper arrythmia for long. Dr. Mehta has so much experience, however, that he was able to capitalize on those moments when I was in the right rhythym and he located the short circuit to zap. At one point during the mapping process I remember feeling uncomfortable because they were really raising my heartbeat intensely (to try to recreate the irregular rhythym) so I asked for a little more loopy juice and they gave it. I was fine. The whole experience was more dramatic in the build up than in the actual event. You have nothing to worry about. Joey may have to lie flat for a number of hours depending on whether they can use the optimal "plug" to close the artery. In my case, they didn't or couldn't use the best kind of plug, so I had to lie pretty flat for a few hours to avoid bleeding. No big deal. They kept me overnight and I recovered quickly.
John

[Missy]

My son is facing an ablation and is going in for consultation at Dallas VA on the 22. He had to cancel the first due to job. But I am worried and keep hearing all this bad stuff about this.
These posts were very informative and reassuring. Thank you.

[sylviayasgur]

hi john,
thanks so much for your positive input. joey is getting very anxious as the ate nears. we had gone to see another electrophysiologist for another opinion who laid all the cards on the table, so to speak. dr. mehta didn't do this and seemed very confident in his procedure.
hearing what you had to say really made a difference. in addition, dr. stelzer is also at mt. sinai and knows dr. mehta and is planning on stopping by to see both him and joey (a treat since we adore and worship the man).
i imagine it will be a long day this wed. will let you all know how things go.
again, thanks so much for all your support, help, and just being there.
stay well,
sylvia

[Johnz]

Best of luck to Joey. We will all be thinking of him and looking forward to hearing from you afterward.
John

[sylviayasgur]

hi all/johnz,
ablation, according to dr. mehta, was successful. took about 5 hours.... so far so good...
some little stumbling blocks though: they gave joey too much warfarin while trying to load his coumadin and he was left with a hematoma at one of the incisions in his groin. still putting weight on it, but ok for now. in addition, when they put his foley cath in they must have done it improperly because it was hurting like h--l! then when the nurse took it out, she must not have cleared it sufficiently and caused trauma which ended up hurting unbelievably and caused bleeding_ not a fun experience.
it still hurts joey. think he may need to see a urologist for this soon.
all in all, joey was very disappointed by the hospital. it was as though they totally forgot about him and didn't even come in to take vitals, etc when i was there. he was thrilled to go home yesterday.
glad it's over and time will tell how effective this was.
will keep you up to date. thanks so much for all your support,
sylvia

[Lynlw]

I'm glad it seems to be working, but sorry to hear about the other problems. Even as a female I cringed when I read the cath experience, I can imagine the pain. Justin had a problem when they were removing his foley after surgery when he was 10 that for some reason the balloon wouldn't totally deflate so they pretty much had to yank it out. It was awful, but thankfully he had no damage, hopefully Joey is as lucky.
What a relief it must be to have this behind you. I'm praying for long term success.

[valleygirl]

Hello all,
I was a member a few years ago and then drifted away as I got better and better. I have actually been working for about a year now and am faced with an ablation next week. I understand that this procedure is a common one and can be very beneficial, but what is bothering me the most is my future. I seems that my heart just keeps getting sicker and sicker and I'm only 61, a young 61 at that. I have a porcine valve and a pacemaker. As a new old member, I remember a number of you from before.
I'm planning on having the procedure here in San antonio at the Texsan Heart Hospital where I had my pacemaker implanted. I won't go near the hospital where I had my first surgery and the subsequent MRSA horror. I don't believe my "electrician" is famous, but he seems to know what he's doing. His name is Javier Roman-Gonzalez and is from Puerto Rico.
I don't really know where I'm going with this; it's just that my future is not looking too bright right now. Is this going to be an ongoing thing, a heart procedure every few years?
I'd appreciate any words of wisdom or experience. Right now I'm just angry and I know that does no one any good.
Thanks for reading this.
Barbara

[Greg a]

Hello all,
I was a member a few years ago and then drifted away as I got better and better. I have actually been working for about a year now and am faced with an ablation next week. I understand that this procedure is a common one and can be very beneficial, but what is bothering me the most is my future. I seems that my heart just keeps getting sicker and sicker and I'm only 61, a young 61 at that. I have a porcine valve and a pacemaker. As a new old member, I remember a number of you from before.
I'm planning on having the procedure here in San antonio at the Texsan Heart Hospital where I had my pacemaker implanted. I won't go near the hospital where I had my first surgery and the subsequent MRSA horror. I don't believe my "electrician" is famous, but he seems to know what he's doing. His name is Javier Roman-Gonzalez and is from Puerto Rico.
I don't really know where I'm going with this; it's just that my future is not looking too bright right now. Is this going to be an ongoing thing, a heart procedure every few years?
I'd appreciate any words of wisdom or experience. Right now I'm just angry and I know that does no one any good.
Thanks for reading this.
Barbara

Barbara, WELCOME back to our OHS family

I would suggest that maybe you want to start a new thread where all the family will read it as many may ignore an old thread not knowing your post is here

Greg