Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) Support Group
Atrial fibrillation (AF or afib) is an abnormal heart rhythm (cardiac arrhythmia) which involves the two small, upper heart chambers (the atria). Heart beats in a normal heart begin after electricity generated in the atria by the sinoatrial node spread through the heart and cause contraction of the heart muscle and pumping of blood.
Hi everyone,
I visited this forum occasionslly for the past five and a half years since my afib started. Posted a little but read a lot. Afib progressed from 1-2 episodes a year to monthly to short episodes daily. At this point, about 14 months ago, I started taking daily Propafenone and things were better.
I recently developed some serious side effects and must discontinue the drug. To be honest, it wasn't working as well as before anyways. So I have decided to pull the plug and get an ablation.
I have always considered Bordeaux to be one of the best facilities in the world so I thought that would be where I'd like to go. I'm 43 years old and want to get the best chance for a one-and-done procedure.
My electrophysiologist here is a nice guys and does 35-40 procedures a year but I am still hesitant to have it done here.
I want to know what people here think. Do I go for the local guy or, if I can afford it, do I go for the best?
Any feedback is greatly appreciated, especially those who have had it done.
Monty
I visited this forum occasionslly for the past five and a half years since my afib started. Posted a little but read a lot. Afib progressed from 1-2 episodes a year to monthly to short episodes daily. At this point, about 14 months ago, I started taking daily Propafenone and things were better.
I recently developed some serious side effects and must discontinue the drug. To be honest, it wasn't working as well as before anyways. So I have decided to pull the plug and get an ablation.
I have always considered Bordeaux to be one of the best facilities in the world so I thought that would be where I'd like to go. I'm 43 years old and want to get the best chance for a one-and-done procedure.
My electrophysiologist here is a nice guys and does 35-40 procedures a year but I am still hesitant to have it done here.
I want to know what people here think. Do I go for the local guy or, if I can afford it, do I go for the best?
Any feedback is greatly appreciated, especially those who have had it done.
Monty
Well, I am sure if you have followed the postings here, you have seen that Andrea Natale seems to be THE man, and he is here in the good old US of A. I loved my guy, Dr. Hugh Calkins at Johns Hopkins. When I last saw him, he expressed the opinion that the best research was still being done in Bordeaux. I will say this, you couldn't find a nicer place to have the surgery done! It is a beautiful little town, and well worth a visit. I did a little research into it a few years back..at that time I think the figure I saw was that the ablation would cost about 15K there...but I don't know...I think Dr. Calkins only make about 13K on mine, but the entire cost was $117,000. Don't think you want to get hit with a bill like that, so you would have to call Bordeaux and find out the real cost. I personally don't think this is a bad idea. I think it at least warrants some further research. Bonne chance!
Bill
P.S. I think if I had hit the lottery I would have gone to Bordeaux to have it done, but I didn't, and staying in the Baltimore area worked out for me.
Natale would be my choice but it is prohibitively expensive without insurance. The procedure in France is about $20000 or so plus airfare, etc.
Bill, I've consistently heard the same things about Bordeaux as you say. About 3 years ago when I first was considering an ablation and brought it up with my doctor he was trying to dissuade me from the idea because I hadn't tried any meds yet. He was telling me how there are sometimes serious complications and they actually had a guy "upstairs right now" whose esophagus they had to remove.
That was one thing that impressed me about Bordeuax. They invented the procedure back in 94 or so and have not had one single death out of thousands of procedure. As well, they have never observed any esophageal fistulas.
I suspect at the time my doctor was just trying to persuade me to try the meds first but it definitely made an impression.
Monty
http://a-fib.com/bordeaux-five-step-ablation-protocol-for-chronic-a-fib/
Dunno if you saw my email offline...please let me know if you do decide to head to Bordeaux, I may be able to hook you up with a family to stay with while you are there.
Bill
I saw it and replied.
Thanks!
Monty