A member asked:

Are heart ablations safe w/o much complications for irregular heart beat? why is there so much negative talk about it. even my cardio says last resort

2 doctors weighed in across 2 answers

Ablation: Ablation for arrhythmia is an effective treatment for some arrhythmias and less effective for others. It is performed by burning or freezing parts of the heart to deal with the pathways of the abnormal rhythms. There are complications possible and 100% effectiveness of the procedure isn't necessarily frequent. For these reasons we don't jump to the procedure but use it when appropriate.

Answered 5/2/2014

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Irregular heart beat: What kind of irregular heart beat you are talking about? Is it a trial fibrillation. Success rate of ablation for a trial fibrillation is about 80-85% with some complications that are mostly not serious in good centers. However if atrial fibrillation, you might need to have more than one procedure. We usually try medications and not working then we go to ablation, i.e. Last resort.

Answered 5/2/2014

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