Not every individual with atrial fibrillation needs to
correct it as some people with an irregular heartbeat can go years without any
treatment other than stroke prevention. But, a lot of people have so-called
chronic AFib, where it's there all the time. They as well can live their lives
normally as long as their heart rate isn’t too fast. Dizziness; fatigue and
lack of energy; shortness of breath; racing, pounding, or fluttering heart are
some symptoms of Atrial Fibrillation. Your doctor may not try to get it back
into a normal rhythm if you don’t have any of these problems and your ticker is
pumping blood normally. You may be able to control it with medication alone if
your ticker goes in and out of a normal beat. If you're in AFib all of the
time, your doctor may recommend something else like electrical cardioversion,
ablation, etc.
Stay prepared to face out-of-hospital cardiac emergencies
efficiently by getting CPR trained. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation comprises
chest compressions and rescue breaths. It is a life-saving technique useful in
many emergencies, including a heart attack or near drowning or a
life-threatening cardiac arrest, in which someone’s breathing or heartbeat has
stopped. Select a certified training site for acquiring training. If you belong
to the Louisville region in KY, don’t look beyond the AHA certified CPR Louisville for your CPR certificationLouisville. Become certified at the end of the training classes after
successfully passing a skills test and written exam.
Electrical
Cardioversion- This is one of the first options to reset your ticker. It
is a procedure in which an electric current is used to reset the heart’s rhythm
back to its regular pattern. You will be given medication called a blood thinner before
cardioversion which will give your body time to dissolve any blood clots
lurking inside your heart that could come loose because of the procedure and
lead to a stroke. The doctor will check for clots in your heart by doing a
transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) if your symptoms are too severe. After
sedating you, your doctor will put a long, flexible tube with a small
device down your throat until it's behind the top of your ticker. What the
device does is it sends out sound waves and picks up their echoes to make a
picture on a computer screen. If your doctor doesn’t find any clots,
you are all set.
Ablation- Doctors
may recommend a procedure to wipe out the heart tissue that's causing the
misfiring signal if your AFib still isn’t under control. We are talking about
ablation which isn’t a surgery, but requires a small cut. The doctor during the
procedure will thread a long, thin tube called a catheter through a vein from
your leg or your neck into your heart. Then heat, cold, or radio energy is used
to create scars on specific places of your ticker, which stops them from
sending or passing electrical signals.
Like all medical procedure, catheter ablation has its own
risks with about 5 percent of patients having some type of complication including
bleeding where the catheter goes into the body or when it enters the heart, as
well as a 1% risk of stroke. Your doctor may skip the catheter and carry out
just the ablation if you’re already planning a heart surgery.
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