Posted by Carl Plaskett on March 05, 2003 at 14:46:02:
In Reply to: catheter ablation posted by bill on March 05, 2003 at 14:06:33:
Bill: If you have read many posts(perhaps not 4000+ of them) you have seen that MANY of us had flutter ablations, which were often helpful with flutter, but we ended up still having afib continue to worsen. I believe it used to be a common assumption that afib was "triggered" by aflutter, and perhaps that was/is true in some cases. Afib ablations are much more difficult, particularly around the pulmonary veins, where most seem to originate. The Cleveland Clinic is clearly the "cutting edge" center for this procedure now, and their incidence of stenosis has been extremely low, and I believe, even those have been correctable. Check their website and do a search for atrial fibrillation, then search the various links for "treatment, etc" for atrial fib. There is a lot of up-to-date info there. There are also a lot of CC ablation vets posting here. I believe they are all happy. There are NOT as many from other heart centers who post here, but some have not been too pleased. This will change as more doctors become more experienced with the newest techniques/tools.