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I had the procedure done a little over 4 years ago for atrial flutter. Didn’t have much in the way of symptoms except that I had fainted a few times (probably a total of 3 all early in the morning, shaving, etc.) over a few years before that. Might add that I have done a morning run on fairly regular basis since we moved here in 1969. One time my chest at the lower edge of my ribs was sore on one side & it was uncomfortable running. The diagnosis was pneumonia and after the antibiotic treatment, the Dr. was doing a follow up exam and had me get an ekg. The results were somewhat similar to those shown here: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/757549-overview

He told me that that extra sawtooth waveform was not supposed to be there. The electrical heart doctor cured it with the ablation process. My heart rate had been pretty low (due to good physical condition) & they put in a pacemaker & set it at 60. I was not necessarily convinced that the pacemaker was necessary, since it runs all the time due to the natural low heart rate. The first pacemaker lasted a little over 4 years and I found out that you can learn a lot of interesting things from the pacemaker technician while they are downloading information from the old unit and setting up the new one.

Ablation Procedure: They put you out for the procedure. Mine was held in a room with 4 large monitors overhead, one showing the ekg. Don’t remember what the others were, but one is probably like an x-ray. They run the microwave cable up from your groin to your heart.

I came home the next day for Thanksgiving dinner. (Homemade beat hospital food). As far as I can tell, the atrial flutter is gone & I have not fainted since the procedure. My recovery was probably extended due to the installation of the pacemaker.

An advantage in having a pacemaker is that it records “episodes”. Its sort of like a continuous ekg.

Don’t know if this helps. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

My cousin nearest my age has the afib problem like my father (BTW, everybody in the area where I was born is related to everybody else ~ some on quite slender and straight family trees too ~ but we digress).

In discussing the problem and reading the Scandinavian research into it we've figured out that the hereditary afib is definitely related to a naturally square shaped heart where the atrial chambers are LARGER than average ~ this enables your heart to move more blood through the lungs with less breathing ~ probably advantageous in the Arctic.

Second, we all have a characteristic heart beat ~ it goes up to about 120 bpm, then gradually drops off to 40 to 50 bpm during extended exercise.

The Afib problem is on top of that normal beat. Treatment with drugs definitely gets in the way of normal life, particularly when those drugs are trying to SLOW DOWN a 40 bpm rate. Ablation (my father, my cousin, other cousins) definitely is the way to go if you have Afib on top of the square heart (also frequently found among athletes).

Thanks phil. Yep, I know about pacemakers, I had to have my mitral valve sewn up when I was about 54. Because of that operation, I ended up with atrial fib and the need for a pace maker. Apparently a side affect of the operation. At any rate I don't think I really need the pace maker, on one of my Afib runs my heart would slow down when it tried to recover, actually stopped for about 4 seconds each time. After that they put in the pace maker and gave me large quantities of beta blockers, Ace inhibitors etc.

First pace maker lasted about 10 years, the one I have now is not going to last that long because the leads going into the heart are not right for some reason.

So, I already have the pace maker all I need is to get rid of the damn A flutter. Very annoying, even when there are not a lot of symptoms associated with it(some people get some severe symptoms, some don't).