Cardio says history of SVT requires telemetry with ortho surgery - curious to hear other's thoughts?
Hi all, going to do my best to keep this brief. I was wondering if anybody could help me understand my SVT/atrial tachychardia history... trying to avoid a Dr. Google moment, lol.
For context - healthy 28F, some minor health conditions but none life-threatening. Since I was a teenager I've had heart palpitations and a generally elevated heart rate - sent me to the ER a few times. When I was in my early 20s that my primary care recommended I wear a monitor for a few days, and finally, the palpitations were caught. At the time, my cardiologist explained them as "extra beats primarily coming from the atrial chamber, with a few coming from the ventricular chamber". And she said I had something called atrial tachycardia. I was put on metoprolol 25MG ER and have been taking it daily for a year, with decent results at keeping my heartrate lower and minimizing the palpitations. I still have some - maybe a couple skipped beats a week, and 5-10 minute "runs" once every 6 weeks or so.
A few weeks back I went to get cardio clearance for a shoulder surgery, and since my cardio is out of office for a bit, I saw a colleague who was filling in. He read my chart and had no concerns, but said we should do the heart monitor + stress test to be safe (I do these annually at my cardiologist's recommendation). He told me to tell my surgeon that he should expect the clearance to come thru.
I saw a different cardio the following week for my stress test + monitor results, and he said everything came back clear (a few palpitations on the monitor but no SVT). However, he looked thru my chart and said that he saw a history of SVT in other monitors we've done, and that because of this, we need to move my surgery out of the surgical center and to a hospital with telemetry and access to the ICU, if something goes wrong. Unfortunately we had to cancel my surgery (a week before, a little frustrating) and its being rescheduled so it can be done in a hospital.
My question - why didn't the first cardiologist I see, who had access to my chart, make this same recommendation? I had no idea I had a history of SVT - is this something that requires specialized treatment? Was this recent cardiologist I saw just being overly cautious?
Thank you guys, any advice would be appreciated!