Wolff-Parkinson-White, anyone?

[kathryn]

I just found out that I have WPW syndrome (no relation to Parkinson's disease, just the same doc who helped discover both)--an auxiliary pathway in the heart that sends extra electrical signals to make the heart beat irregularly or faster. It's congenital, but hasn't been very symptomatic until lately (which tends to put a damper on my working out). I've been reading up on it a bit, but wanted to know if anyone else out there has had this or had any experience with Radio Frequency Ablation to get rid of the extra pathway. Thanks in advance!

 

[Colia]

WPW

Hi Kathryn!

As a pediatric intensivist, I have had some experience helping the pediatric cardiologists take care of kids with this problem. As you probably know, most are managed with medical therapy and advance to oblation if meds aren't working satisfactorily. In my experience, if you have a well-defined pathway, the oblation will take care of the problem, and patients do very well - it's usually when there are multiple pathways that are poorly defined that make oblation difficult, as they can't find and oblate all of them. Patients like this will often require multiple procedures. With wpw, I would think you would do well with an oblation procedure if medical management is failing, given the fact that it is usually a single, well-defined pathway.

Best of luck, and keep us posted!

 

[ebh87]

WPW

My mother had the oblation done three times. I felt really bad for her. The third time was the only one that was successful. This was about a year and a half ago. She still has episodes, but they are very infrequent. I think having the oblation done three times without a lot of success is very rare, though.
Best wishes,
Erica

 

[sabella]

my dad has it

Took them years (and numerous heart attacks) to figure it out, though, starting at about age 36. When they finally did a procedure on him, I was away at school, and the doctor described it to the non-medical family as "burning out the extra nerve". I'm guessing that's the oblation. Anyway, whatever they did, it was a success, and he hasn't had any heart problems in the few years since then. Wish I had more details to share, but I will ask him about it this weekend when I'm home.

Karen N

 

[kay]

Sorry to hear this, Kathryn

I have a daughter that has suffered from paroxysmal atrial tachycardia since early childhood. Her attacks were/are really frightening. WPW was one of the syndromes that had to be ruled out. Lanoxin & limited caffeine intake helped during childhood. Since adulthood she's learned to stop her episodes by submerging her face, with eyes open, in ice water. It's the only vagal response that works. She's no longer on Lanoxin & as long as she keeps that caffeine intake low she has very infrequent episodes.
Best of luck to you!
Kay