fibrillation

[alpha 1]

has anyone here ever experienced fibrillation during their surgery when they never had it before then, also is there a difference in severity between afib and vfib which is worse, also if someone has had it did your ef drop also, this is so frustrating to deal with, and if you had it in the surgery did it just go away after or did you have to wait for ef to come up for it to disappear? thanks
alpha 1

 

[Susan BAV]

About a week after my valve replacement, I developed a-fib/a-flutter. My local family doctor tried digoxen but that didn't really work for me. I was rehospitalized and put on a medication called sotalol, which quickly stopped the rhythm problem for me. While I was back in the hospital, they also repeatedly administered magnesium IVs to me, which is also supposed to help with this rhythm issue. I remained on the sotalol for nearly three months and was then taken off of it, with evidently no return of the a-fib/a-flutter.

Since then, I occasionally have had a few fairly mild incidents of my heart briefly racing but I can make it stop with a sharp cough now. I find that I don't have these incidents as much if I keep properly hydrated and if I am less sedentary; and also, I have fewer heart rhythm issues as I've healed more from the surgery.

Some people are aware when they are having a-fib and/or a-flutter and some are not. I was definitely aware of it and it knocked the wind out of me.

I hope this is helpful and I hope your son is okay.

 

[Dina]

has anyone here ever experienced fibrillation during their surgery when they never had it before then, also is there a difference in severity between afib and vfib which is worse, also if someone has had it did your ef drop also, this is so frustrating to deal with, and if you had it in the surgery did it just go away after or did you have to wait for ef to come up for it to disappear? thanks
alpha 1

Yes, I had an arrhythmia-A.Flutter(similar to A. Fib), But I had mine prior to surgery.Though it is common for post OHS patients to have this and there are
meds & treatments that can fix this problem. Cardiversion is effective for some but if not ther is also cardiac ablation which is only moderately invasive-kinda like a angio. ALSO V. Fib is MUCH worse, And it is immediately life threatening. With A. fib , you have to worry about clotting since the atrium of the heart is not pumping effectively , the blood pools and can cause probs that none of us need.I know that the a. fib does go away on its own post op
but not sure about percentages,though I think they are pretty good.
Are you real short of breath? and what is your pulse or heart rate?
Hope that you feel better soon - I can relate to this one!,

 

[fireftr]

There is a big, big difference between atrial fib and ventricular fib. One means you are alive and the other not so much. A-fib is something that many people live with every day requiring daily medication (Coumadin/Digoxin/etc), while others can develop it acutely and need immediate intervention. Ventricular fib means cardiac arrest. With V-fib the heart is just quivering, not perfusing, and needs electricity to "restart" it. Hope this helps. Take care.

Eric

 

[Dina]

I occasionally have had a few fairly mild incidents of my heart briefly racing but I can make it stop with a sharp cough now.

Some people are aware when they are having a-fib and/or a-flutter and some are not. I was definitely aware of it and it knocked the wind out of me.

Listen to Susan: these arrhythmias can kick the #*%#~out of you! all at once
you are SOAKING wet from sweat,so short of breath that you feel you may suffocate,chest pounding at 210-220 BPM, and one time I had a sharp pain in the pit of my stomach.THEN...
the anxiety comes! I dont know how people can have them and not be aware of it (?), maybe they initiate differently for some.What Drama!

Also ,the coughing can help prevent a certain type of arrhythmia(SVT"S)
which is a type of atrial arrhythmia....This is what I did for the year of 2007,
Hopefully 2008 will be great for All of Us

 

[DeWayne]

I never had afib prior to surgery but while in the hospital 2 days after surgery it hit. I knew something was wrong, I could feel it. They of course were monitoring me at the nurses station an showed up promptly.
I was pretty scared, and they gave me some morphine and put me on some sort of drip, do not recall what it was. About 5 hours later I came out of it. Everything was ok till 2 days later just as the nurses were coming down the corridor with my checkout papers when it hit again. After some time on one thing they switched me to sotolol which stopped it pretty quickly. I had a couple more episodes after I got home in the first week (was on sotolol for a couple months), but I have not had any episodes since and it has been closing in on 2 years now.

 

[Dina]

There is a big, big difference between atrial fib and ventricular fib. One means you are alive and the other not so much. A-fib is something that many people live with every day requiring daily medication (Coumadin/Digoxin/etc), while others can develop it acutely and need immediate intervention. Ventricular fib means cardiac arrest. With V-fib the heart is just quivering, not perfusing, and needs electricity to "restart" it. Hope this helps. Take care.

Eric

Well with Afib the atrium is also just quivering and not pumping anywhere
like normal , and because the ventricles are the muscle of the heart, they can pick up the slack for a bit. But when this 'quivering' occurs with the ventricles,there is no one to assist him to keep functioning. Because when we go into A.Fib its the Ventricles that pull us out of tight spot!

 

[alpha 1]

fib

fib

thanks everyone, i understand it a little better now, it is really scary i kind of thought it was just a flutter or racing just a bit and thought i had them before but maybe i didnt, i am going to look at adams operative report i think it just says fibrillation, but it seems that someone said at one point in the hospital that it was ventricular, but im not for sure, i just cant figure out why though because the preoperative tee said the ef was 50 to 55, so i just wander what could have happened that when they first went in that would make the heart fibrillate, maybe the anesthesia, i dont know maybe since it might have been the v-fib maybe that is why they gave the amioderone instead of the sotalol. i dont know for sure but thanks for helping me. you guys are great.
alpha 1

 

[fireftr]

If they gave you Amiodarone there is a good chance you had an episode of V-fib. Amiodarone is an anti-arhythmic used to reverse or prevent certain deadly rhythms, such as v-fib or v-tach. As a paramedic I give amiodarone during v-fib or v-tach cardiac arrest. I can also give it after resuscitation to prevent the rhythm from recurring or during a stable v-tach to hopefully reverse it w/out electricity. Diltiazem (cardizem) is usually the choice for a-fib (this being in the emergency setting anyway). I'm sure they use amiodarone for many different things post op though. Many things can cause the heart to fibrillate, especially the stress put on the heart during open heart surgery in combination with medications, etc. The important thing is that they were right there to fix it. I would definitely look into it and ask questions though. It may be something that is worth letting future caregivers know, especially before surgeries.

Eric
Sitting in the waiting room with BAV

 

[fireftr]

Well with Afib the atrium is also just quivering and not pumping anywhere
like normal , and because the ventricles are the muscle of the heart, they can pick up the slack for a bit. But when this 'quivering' occurs with the ventricles,there is no one to assist him to keep functioning. Because when we go into A.Fib its the Ventricles that pull us out of tight spot!

Good point Dina. The difference is, with a-fib the atria is quivering, but enough of the electrical impulses are still going all the way through the circuit and stimulating the ventricles. This causes the irregular heartbeat. So the atria is still functioning, just not efficiently. That is why people live with a-fib for 40+ years in many cases, with proper rate control and anticoagulation. Many times the rate of the a-fib increases to dangerous numbers (150 and above) and must be controlled to prevent the blood pressure from going dangerously low or leading to a more dangerous rhythm like v-fib.

Eric
Sitting in the waiting room with BAV