Enter cardiac ablation. IVs or intravenous catheters inserted in the groin or legs make their way through blood vessels, where they map electrical signals and get to the heart of the problem — literally. More often than not, this is enough to steady the heartbeat. Cardiac ablation is on the rise in the United States, meaning more and more people wonder what to expect — not only during the procedure, but afterward.
Arkles explains. Special machines will monitor your heart as you recover. Some people can go home the same day as the ablation, but others will stay in the hospital for one or more nights. Recovery from catheter ablation is usually fairly straightforward. In the days after the procedure, you may experience mild symptoms such as an achy chest and discomfort, or bruising in the area where the catheter was inserted. You might also notice skipped heartbeats or irregular heart rhythms.
Most people can return to their normal activities within a few days. Contact your doctor immediately if you have unusual pain or swelling, excessive bleeding or consistent irregularities in your heartbeat. Depending on the type of arrhythmia being treated, catheter ablation can have a success rate of more than 90 percent, but some people may need to have the procedure again or other treatments for heart arrhythmias.
Your doctor may want you to remain on medications to help control your heartbeat. Then they can find and ablate or destroy damaged cells inside your heart. After ablating destroying the cells that are causing problems inside your heart tissue, your doctor will prompt your heart to start beating quickly again.
If your heartbeat is regular and slower, then the ablation was successful. If your heart starts beating quickly and irregularly again, you may need more ablation. However, you will feel a little pressure. Your doctor will use a small needle to make punctures in your veins or artery. If at any time you feel pain in the groin area, let the doctor or nurse know so they can inject more numbing medication. Your doctor will then insert multiple catheters or wires through these puncture sites and guide them into your heart with the help of X-ray monitors.
How many catheters you have and where we place them will depend on the type of ablation procedure you're having. The mapping catheter locates where the abnormal signals are coming from in your heart. It marks those places on our 3D-mapping computer system. This helps us find the areas inside your heart tissue that need to be ablated destroyed. The ablation catheter delivers radiofrequency heating energy or freezing energy to create lesions.
These lesions disrupt the abnormal electrical signals inside your heart. You may feel some discomfort during this part of the ablation, depending on where in the heart it is. Often, doctors will use an intracardiac echocardiography sonogram through a special catheter from within the heart.
The total ablation procedure takes two to six hours, but the length of surgery depends on many factors. During your procedure, we may ask you not to move or take deep breaths while your doctor is ablating.
This is important so your doctor can make sure she is ablating the right areas. When the procedure is finished, your doctor will remove all the catheters. They will put pressure on the areas where we inserted catheters. You will need to stay flat for two to six hours to make sure any bleeding has stopped and that your incisions cuts are healing well. Most patients will not need sutures stitches. Your doctor may give you a prescription before you leave the hospital.
You may fill prescriptions at your regular pharmacy or the hospital pharmacy. If you would like to fill your prescriptions at the hospital, please remember to have your insurance card s with you as well as some form of payment.
The chances of having health problems after a catheter ablation are fairly low. The ablated or destroyed areas of tissue inside your heart may take up to eight weeks to heal.
You may still have arrhythmias irregular heartbeats during the first few weeks after your ablation. During this time, you may need anti-arrhythmic medications or other treatment.
But for most patients, this post-procedure atrial fibrillation will eventually go away. After three months, you will have a follow-up appointment, and we will reassess how well you have responded to the treatment. At that point, we will make decisions about continuing your blood thinners and heart rhythm-controlling medicines. A certain percentage of patients will need to come back for a second procedure.
However, that won't be determined until after the 3-month follow-up appointment to allow for sufficient healing time. The Arrhythmia Program at the University of Michigan has been a national and international leader in the treatment of arrhythmias for more than 30 years.
To schedule an appointment to discuss catheter ablation, a heart arrhythmia or any other cardiovascular condition or treatment, call us at , or visit our Make a Cardiovascular Appointment page, where you may fill out a Patient Appointment Request Form and view other details about making an appointment.
Updated visitor guidelines. Frequently Asked Questions: Catheter Ablation.
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