How long after Ablation till HR returns to normal

Hello all-
Ablation 6JAN in Austin.
Prior to HR was 60 bpm.
Since ablation its been 82-85 bpm.
Curious if this has happened to others and how long it took to return to normal, if at all.
Thanks. And thanks to Dr Natale for fixing me, no more afib!!
-Jim

Jim,

It is perfectly normal for you to have an elevated HR for some time after an proper and effective AFIB ablation. In fact some degree of elevation is a good sign that argues well for a better long term outcome than if you did not have any HR elevation.

Its a sign that enough of those pacing cells making up the endothelial lining of the left and right atria were temporarily addressed by the ablation lesions in the process of a successful ablation process.

It can take a minimum of 4 months to a more typical minimum of 6 months to 1 year for the HR to return pretty much to a normal pre-ablation HR and sometimes, mostly in the case of a very extensive ablation for guys like me that procrastinated too long until I flipped into aggressive persistent AFIB before getting my index ablation with Dr Natale, It took me a fully 2 years and just a bit over before my HR returned to my pre-ablation level of around 60bpm as a resting waking HR.

Keep in mind that a wait of 2 years is very unusual, and truth be told my HR had reduced to the low 80s to upper 70s by 9 months post index ablation and then took another 15 months more to return to the 60bpm normal resting HR range. However I didn't notice it much at all after 9 months and was no big deal.

Certainly it was all well worth the now going on 9 years of total freedom for AFIB after being so aggressively symptomatic with such a 24/7 non-stop persistent AFIB/Flutter mix. And Its been going on 6 years since the second and last ablation to isolation only my LAA and Ive been 00% free of all atrial tachy-arrhythmias since then!

A little elevated HR is a very small and gratefully accepted fee to pay for such long term success! And during whatever number of months that an elevated rate may seem slightly annoying, you can always add a small dose of either a beta blocker like 2.5mg of Bystolic or a small dose of a calcium channel blocker like Verapamil or Dlitiazem to help lower the HR to a comfortable level for the time being until your own pacing cells that control your endogenous HR regrown and kick in again.

No worries at all Jim!

Cheers!
Shannon

Jim,

It took me about a year and then it seemed to go down quite suddenly.

Monty

For me, It took about 8 months. That was for both ablations I had. One in Feb 2014; The other in June 2016.

Jim - My HR normalized quite rapidly after each of my 3 ablations and I've always thought it was because I went right back to using the heart supportive nutrients mentioned in The Strategy.... if not, then I was just very fortunate.

Jackie

It'll take anywhere from 1 month to maybe even a year. I'd wager more like 3 months, though. Remember an ablation is done with 40 watts of radio frequency energy in the pencil-sized tip of a catheter. So, basically we all got the insides of our hearts "branded" with a soldering iron. That causes swelling. Imagine if you drew a line around your arm or leg with a hot iron. How long would it take for that to stop bring swollen, red and painful? How long until it became just hardened scar tissue? Answer - a while.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2017 07:38AM by wolfpack.

Jim,

It took me 1.5 years before HR was back to pre ablation (Dr. Natale) level in low 50's. I was afib and symptom free the whole time so this was never an issue. I wouldn't worry about this.

Alan