Wolff Parkinson White 15 year old - Heart Disorders Message Board

colleenfl · 08-02-2007, 05:11 PM

Looking for suggestions.
My son is 15 he has WPW with SVT he has had two ablations both unsuccessful. We were just at the cardiologist yesterday and now are planning a 3rd ablataion. This is the second doctor who is in charge that we saw in which he did assist in my son's first ablation. We have come to find out that my sons WPW is in a very rare spot the lower right in very thick muscle behind a major artery by the tricuspid. There is only a few documented cases of my sons WPW location it is very rare and the success rate is 80%. The doctor is going to try to freeze as much as he can then he has to burn it which is a little more risky due to how hard it is to get to the WPW and could cause the artery to go into a spasam. My son will not take the medication and this really needs to be taken care of for my son wants to be a piolt. We do have ateonol for him to take. My son is very depressed about having to do this a third time. I dont know if we should have our doctor talk to the Cleveland Clinic and maybe have it done there? I dont know how much more then can do than what our doctor here can do since it is so rare and very few cases documented. My doctor just recently did one in the same location as my son and the doctor got a little shook up because the artery went into a spasm but the girl is doing very well. I do not know if it was successful or not. My son was to upset for me to ask any more questions. I have a call into the office to discus the success of the girl he just did and about the cleveland clinic and some other questions we have. In the meantime we are scheduling the ablation knowing we may have to cancel if we go to the Cleveland Clinic. Does any one else have any input or in the same situation? This has really dampened my sons spirits especailly by not being able to do football or scuba diving for over 2 1/2 years now. I really do like the doctor we have we just want the best we can get for my son no matter where we have to go to do it. Also I remeber the other doctor telling us after his last ablation he did not have a cath small enough for the area, go figure which is something we are going to mention to our current doctor.

Thanks

sam78 · 08-02-2007, 06:01 PM

Colleen, a couple things for ya. One, to say they dont have a small enough catheter is not true, they probably just dont have them, but they are out there. Also I might recommend a doctor I was referred to in Oklahoma named Dr Jackman. He is a specialist in EP ablation. He is the first doctor in the US to use magnetics to guide ablations. Extremely precise. It works like GPS does essentially. He is at the university of oklahoma. Just another option besides the Cleveland Clinic. If this were my son, I would not let them go in a third time, unless it was performed by the best of the best (ie cleveland or dr jackman). It makes me nervous when the same doctors want to continue to go in and fix something they have not been able to fix before. Sometimes they are more apt to do something they shouldnt be doing. Just my opinion. But definetly look up Dr Jackman.

Pika · 08-10-2007, 05:09 AM

Hi Colleen,

"very thick muscle behind a major artery by the tricuspid" is that so called "Mahaim fiber" tachycardia? Or paraseptal bypass?