Important: If you do not have a responsible adult with you to drive you home, your procedure will be canceled. You will not be able to drive for 24 hours after the procedure.
Travel Information
You may be able to go home the same day as your procedure. Otherwise, you will spend the night in the hospital and go home the next day.
- If you have a long trip home, stop every hour and walk for 5 to 10 minutes. If you are traveling by plane, stand up and walk in the aisle at least once every hour.
Restrictions
- You may take a shower the day after the procedure. Avoid extreme water temperatures.
- Do not take a bath, soak in any kind of water, or swim for 5 days after the procedure.
- Your healthcare provider will tell you when you can return to work.
- Follow these instructions for the first week after your procedure:
- Do not lift objects that weigh more than 10 pounds.
- Avoid activities that involve pushing or pulling heavy objects, such as shoveling the snow and mowing the lawn.
- Stop any activity before you become overtired.
- Walk as much as possible. Your healthcare provider will tell you when you can resume more strenuous activities.
Care of the catheter insertion site
- Look at the catheter insertion site every day to check for healing and signs of infection.
- Wash your hands before you touch the area.
- Gently wash and rinse the site at least once each day with soap on your hand or a washcloth. Do not rub or scrub the area.
- Keep the area clean and dry, except when washing it or showering.
- You do not need to keep the site covered with a bandage.
Pain management
You may feel discomfort in the catheter insertion area. This should go away within 24 hours after the procedure. Your healthcare provider will talk to you about medicine to manage your pain.
Symptoms
You may have some symptoms for 4 to 6 weeks after the procedure. You may:
- Feel like you have extra heartbeats, your heart is racing or skipping beats, or like your abnormal heart rhythm starts to return, but stops.
- Be slightly short of breath.
- Have mild fatigue.
Contact your healthcare provider if your symptoms are severe, last longer than 6 weeks or if your abnormal heart rhythm returns.
Follow-up care
- Your healthcare provider will talk to you about your follow-up schedule. It is very important to keep all appointments.
- Catheter ablation is only one part of your plan of care. It is also important to take your medicine, make lifestyle changes as needed and follow other instructions from your healthcare team.
If you have non-emergency questions or concerns after you get home, call 1.888.490.6121.
A registered nurse is available 24/7 to answer your call. It is best to call M - F, 7 a.m. - 7 p.m., if possible
If you have a medical emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department.
Call your healthcare provider right away if:
- You have a fever higher than 101 degrees F or 38.4 degrees C or if the catheter incision site:
- The catheter insertion site/area:
- Drains, bleeds or oozes more than usual. If bleeding doesn’t stop after 20 minutes, call 911.
- Opens.
- Is red, swollen or warm to the touch.
For urgent, but nonemergency symptoms after regular business hours, call 216.444.2200 or 800.223.2273 and ask for the EP Fellow On-Call.
