Afib and Aflutter ablation successful but ASD found

Just had an afib/aflutter ablation two days ago. EP said it went great. Recovery has been hard with nausea, chest pain, general overall discomfort. While in procedure they said they found an ASD. Wish they hadn’t told me so soon but my regular cardio came in and said I now need a trans esophageal ultrasound to accurately diagnose it to determine whether I need a simple catherization closure or actual open heart surgery! YUK! He said there was some swelling of one of the atria and ventricles indicating some excess pressure due to backflow. Not sure I totally understood him after just coming out of anesthesia but wondering if this is something others are familiar with and how it affects afib. He also said even with ablation there is a 30% chance afib will return in the future. Any help in understanding all this is appreciated.

ASD = atrial septal defect (a hole in between the right and left atria)

Did they do a cardiac MRI prior to the ablation? I'm curious if that would have caught it or not.

They did a cardiac ct scan.

If you have a hole in your heart, not due to being jilted by a lover, my sister has a hole in her heart. The Navy cardiologist put a nickle plug in, if you will, via catherization. Turns out, she now has continuous PVC's. Turns out she is allergic to nickle and quess what, the plug is made of, nickle. I am not an expert and hope I never am. Make sure you get tested for allergies and find out what the product is made of before they place it in your heart. Good luck.

I had ASD repair when I was 34. That was almost 20 years ago. My hole was large and had to be closed with a bovine patch. At the time they used a heart port approach. Went in between the ribs. I'm not sure if that is what they mean by open heart, but it was not a rib spreader situation. I don't think you should have worry about that these days. I haven't had any problems except a-fib, since.The left atrium (if I recall correctly) has more pressure/greater burden. Having a hole between left and right chambers--usually a congenital defect, increases the pressure on the right side and causes some enlargement. Mine was enlarged until they repaired the hole, but I was young enough that the enlargement wasn't permanent. My a-fib is thought to have developed as a result of the fibrosis this causes. Sorry to hear you might have to deal with another surgery, but I don't think it's much more invasive than the ablation. I'm sure all will go well. These are fairly common procedures.