Are all Arrhythmias treatable if detected before a massive heart attack?

Question

Or are there some people who are just told they are a ticking time bomb?

This arrhythmia or dysrythmia was revealed to family members when it occured as a survivable complication of a kidney cancer surgery.

Turns out, this patient had been diagnosed with arrhythmia a few years before and chosen not to tell anyone. During the episode after the kidney surgery, night-time docs reacted with alarm to the arrhythmia and wanted to begin aggressive treatment of that in the post-op period. The nephrologist was called and said, nonsense. The patient really trusted the nephrologist and later told us the neph said, "With guys like me, it's our hearts that get us, not dialysis."

A year later, the patient was dead of a sudden and massive heart attack, although he gave signs in the last month (reviewed retrospectively) that he felt his death was coming, and he was definitely changed in lovingness and gentleness and intensity of focus on the moment and the people with him for the four years prior to his death.

Answer 1

I can't think of any arrhythmias which aren't treatable, if you have time (ie you don't come into the ER coding). Some people's bodies are a lot more stubborn than others', though, and medications have to be adjusted a lot. Sometimes you need a pacer or defibrillater or an ablation procedure, and I guess there are some times when they don't work - but in general all arrhythmias are treatable.

With other types of heart disease, it's a different story.

Answer 2

Definitely all arrhythmias are treatable if detected at any stage irrespective of heart attack or any other heart problem. The general tendency of most of the people is not to go to doctor for checking up minutely, so detection of any arrhythmia is practically not done. Only after a attach or some other problem all the tests are done and arrhythmia etc. are reveled and treated. Many people do not know what arrhythmia is.

So every body should not the meaning etc. of this and the treatment to be given. In fact I am a heart patient and I came to know that I have arrhythmia, only after my By-pass surgery.

Cardiac arrhythmia is a group of conditions in which the muscle contraction of the heart is irregular or is faster or slower than normal. Cardiac dysrhythmia is technically more correct, as arrhythmia would imply that there is "no rhythm," but this term is not used frequently.

Some arrhythmias are life-threatening medical emergencies that can cause cardiac arrest and sudden death. Others cause aggravating symptoms, such as an awareness of a different heart beat, or palpitation, which can be annoying. Some are quite benign and normal. Sinus arrhythmia is the mild acceleration followed by slowing of the normal rhythm that occurs with breathing. In adults the normal heart rate ranges from 60 beats per minute to 100 beats per minute. The normal heart beat is controlled by a small area in the upper chamber of the heart called the sinoatrial node or sinus node. The sinus node contains specialized cells that have spontaneous electrical activity that starts each normal heart beat.

Answer 3

Without knowing the type of arrhythmia he had after surgery, it's difficult to know if it was a warning sign of the heart attack he suffered a year later.

Some postoperative arrhythmias are indeed a sign that something is seriously wrong with the heart. Others are not.
Sorry I can't be more specific with the information at hand.

Answer 4

The word "arrythmia" is sort of a misnomer. It really means "no rhythm at all----flat line.
I prefer to use the word "dysrhythmia", which can apply to any abnormal heartbeat.
An abnormal hearbeat does not necessarily occur before a heart attack. Many people have runs of atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter,
bundle branch blocks, or premature ventricular contractions.
Sometimes these last only a few seconds. They do not mean that the person is a ticking time bomb.
A heart attack occurs when one of the coronary arteries becomes blocked, no oxygen gets to part of the heart, and heart muscle dies from lack of oxygen. Many, if not most, heart attack victims, present with a normal sinus rhythm.

Answer 5

Not all dysrythmias are treatable, some of them are signs of enstage heart disease, meaning no other treatment option; a ticking time bomb. Some of them do not present until a few minutes before a fatal heart attack.