The success rate of the procedure is 95 to 98%. If the clinic is closed or the treating doctor or nurse not available, please proceed to your GP or local emergency service for evaluation. For private patients, contact the Heart Rhythm Clinic on 03 8560 0535. For public patients, contact the Alfred Heart Centre on 03 9076 3263. Prior to your first follow-up appointment, it is best to contact the treating team for any procedure-related concerns as they will be most familiar with the details of the procedure. After 1 week, there should be no limitations on your usual activities. After 5 days, slowly return to normal activities. Rest and gentle walking at home is permitted. Avoid exercise, driving, abdominal straining, and heavy lifting for 5 days. To facilitate healing of the access site, it is best to take a week off work, particularly if your job involves physical activity. If there is increasing pain, active bleeding, or an expanding mass in the groin, please make immediate contact with the clinic, or proceed immediately to your local emergency service for assessment. A pea-sized lump and a minimal amount of bruising is normal and may last for up to 2 weeks. Avoiding applying soap and talcum powder to the site. Observe the area every day and keep it dry and clean. Wound care. The access site at the top of the right thigh in the groin area may take several days to heal.A follow-up appointment will be arranged 8-12 weeks post procedure or earlier if necessary. You will need to arrange for a family member or friend to pick you up from the hospital following discharge. You will be issued further discharge information and instructions which can be found here. Please arrange to take 1 week off work for your recovery. You should avoid exercise, driving, and heavy lifting for at least 5 days after the procedure. Symptoms will typically improve over several days. You may also have some discomfort and bruising in the groin. If you required a transoesophageal echocardiogram, it is common to have a sore throat and some mild chest discomfort. It is usual to stay in hospital for 1 night after the procedure. During this time, it is important to keep your legs straight and your head relaxed on the pillow. You must lie flat for at least 6 hours after the procedure. There may be a compression clamp at the access site in the right groin which will remain in place for around 2-4 h. For the treatment of heart rhythm disorders, radio-frequency energy at a much lower power is used to ablate tissue within the heart that is responsible for initiating or perpetuating your arrhythmia.Īfter the procedure you will wake up in the recovery ward before being transferred to a normal hospital ward. Radiofrequency energy has been used for decades by surgeons to cut tissue and to stop bleeding. Radiofrequency energy is a low power, high frequency energy that is delivered to a tiny region of heart tissue near the tip of the catheter, thus cauterizing or ablating the tissue. An ablation catheter can be used to deliver radiofrequency energy to the problem area in the heart. Each catheter has electrodes on its end that can monitor the heart’s internal electrical activity, akin to performing an internal ECG of the heart. Usually, a blood vessel at the top of the right thigh in the groin area is used for access to the heart.ĭepending on the complexity of the arrhythmia, up to 4 catheters may be used during the procedure. A catheter is a fine wire that can be threaded through a blood vessel via a keyhole opening in the skin and placed in the heart. It is performed in a special operating theatre called a cardiac catheterization laboratory, or cath lab for short. Catheter ablation is a minimally invasive, keyhole technique used to treat a variety of heart rhythm disorders.
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