Atrial Fibrillation Catheter Ablation Complications

“Catheter ablation (for afib) volumes rose 2.5-fold during the study period…The overall in-hospital complication rate increased during the study period from 3.07% to 7.04%”

I developed chronic atrial fibrillation (afib) in late 2010 because of aggressive chemotherapy I underwent from early ’95 through December of that year, for my cancer, multiple myeloma. To be honest, while I can’t prove that it was cardiotoxic chemotherapy regimens that caused my afib, a 1/19 diagnosis of chemotherapy-induced cardiomyopathy has me pretty confident in my assessment. As you can imagine I wondered about treatments or therapies to “fix” my chronic afib.

As I was sitting in the hospital waiting area I was talking with a floor nurse who told me, straight out, “people who develop a-fib can live for their entire lives without therapy.”

Knowing that all therapies, all medications come with side effects, right then and there I decided not to pursue any conventional therapies for my afib.

That above sentence is not completely true. I live a series of evidence-based but non-conventional lifestyle therapies. I exercise moderately seven mornings a week. I supplement with a long and growing list of heart healthy supplements. I eat cleanly and I stopped drinking alcohol a few years ago. I drink a glass of red wine now and then…

As of the writing of this post I have lived with chronic afib for more than 10 years.

I am a long-term multiple myeloma survivor and MM cancer coach. Do you have chronic afib? Please scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply to you ASAP.

thank you,

David Emerson

Multiple Myeloma Survivor
MM Cancer Coach
Director PeopleBeatingCancer

Catheter Ablation Grow in Popularity, But Complication Rates Rise

“A substantial increase in hospital catheter ablation procedures in the United States has been accompanied by a nationwide increase in complications related to the procedures, researchers reported…

Rising volumes of catheter ablations for arrhythmias were seen for older patients and those with significant comorbidities during a 14-year period ending in 2013…

Low volume centers had significantly higher complication rates than high-volume hospitals…

The researchers used the National Inpatient Sample and Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) datasets to identify adult patients who underwent inpatient catheter ablations from 2000 to 2013 due to atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, supraventricular tachycardia or ventricular tachycardia…

Catheter ablation volumes rose 2.5-fold during the study period, largely driven by procedures for atrial fibrillation (from about 2,000 annually to more than 20,000).

The overall in-hospital complication rate increased during the study period from 3.07% to 7.04%…

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