Atrial fibrillation would affect more than 750,000 people in France. As part of the 2021 Week of Action concerning this disease, Why Doctor offers you a series of articles to better understand atrial fibrillation, its symptoms and the treatments to control it. Here, the testimony of Frédéric, 65 years old, treated by cryoablation.
- Treatment of atrial fibrillation with cryoablation has a success rate of at least 80%
- The intervention consists of introducing a probe through a vein which freezes the heart cells responsible for the disease.
“I have friends who suffer from it too, but they don’t talk about it too much, especially between men, these are subjects we don’t talk about, you have to show that you are solid as a rock!”. Frédéric, 65, has also held this posture for a long time in the face of atrial fibrillation. Until the day he decided to undergo cryoablation surgery. “I have absolutely no regrets, it improves the quality of life and it limits the risk of having a stroke with dramatic consequences for yourself and those around you”.
At home, this disease which affects more than 750,000 people in France and which can cause palpitations, shortness of breath and fatigue appeared very early, around his twentieth year. “I barely realized it, but at 45 I had a slightly more pronounced episode and that caused me to spend a night in the hospital,” he says. Following this alert, he was put on antiarrhythmic and anticoagulant treatment. “I had the impression that it was better, so I stopped the medication”, explains Frédéric. Result: new attacks of atrial fibrillation which lead him to consult again.
A disorder that worsens with age
“Even though I was still coping with that feeling of my heart racing quite well, I decided to take things more seriously.” The doctors then explain to him that in the event of other factors of fragility, overweight, diabetes, hypertension, the risk is significant that atrial fibrillation turns into more serious events such as a stroke but that for someone in “good health” the risk is also that the disorder worsens with age and becomes more difficult to manage. “There has been an evolution over the years in the way doctors have presented this disease: for a long time it was characterized as serious and requiring lifelong treatment… today we talk less about seriousness but we recommend monitoring and above all care as soon as possible”, underlines Frédéric.
After analyzing all these factors, he decides to take the plunge: it will be a surgical treatment, a cryoablation which consists of integrating a probe into a vein which goes up to the heart, where the tissues which cause the electrical impulses are located. confused, to freeze and deactivate the cells responsible for this dysfunction of the heart’s contractions. “It’s something quite light, I even walked to the operating room, remembers Frédéric. Then I had a complicated night because of the bandage in the groin where the probe is. inserted into the vein – but I was able to go home the next morning”.
80% success for cryoablation
The only immediate consequence of this intervention, whose success rate exceeds 80% in the treatment of atrial fibrillation, is a possible acceleration of the heart rate in the following month. “But then it disappears quickly,” testifies Frédéric.
Today, with hindsight, he takes another look at what to do when faced with atrial fibrillation: “It’s something that is often tolerated very well even if it causes fatigue, but it can be dangerous… So you don’t have to rush, but know how to anticipate”.
Our Q&A program on atrial fibrillation:
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