ATRIAL FIBRILLATION

Atrial Fibrillation – General Information

Atrial Fibrillation – Symptoms

Atrial Fibrillation – Treatment

To treat Atrial Fibrillation depends on how long the patient suffers with the disease, how discomforting are symptoms of the disease and the main cause of the fibrillation. The treatment usually is applied to reset the rhythm and the control rate and to prevent any blood clots. The best effective treatment for the patient depends on several factors, including if the patient had other problems with his or her heart and how well will support the medications available to cure the fibrillation or controlling the rate. There are also cases, in which can be needed a more invasive treatment, like catheter or surgical techniques. The safest way to treat Atrial Fibrillation is when the doctor has to reset to normal the heart rate and rhythm. This procedure can be done in some particular cases, and depends on the main cause of the fibrillation and for how long the patient had it. To correct the fibrillation, doctors apply a safe measure, that to reset the heart to its normal rhythm, sinus rhythm, using a procedure called cardioversion. Cardioversion can be applied in two ways, cardioversion with drugs and electrical cardioversion.

The cardioversion using drugs is a form of cardioversion which uses medications called anti-arrhythmics leading to the restoration of the sinus rhythm to normal. This depends on the patient’s heart condition, and in most of the cases, the doctor can recommend the intravenous or oral medications to bring the patient’s heart to a normal rhythm. This procedure is usually done in a medical supervision with permanent monitoring of the patient’s heart rate. If the heart rhythm gets to normal stage, the doctor, usually will prescribe the same anti-arrhythmic on a long term just to prevent the recurrence of the fibrillation. The electrical cardioversion is a brief procedure which consists in an electrical shock which is sent to the patient’s heart through some paddles, called patches placed on the chest. The electrical shock halts the patient heart's electrical activity for a short time, less than a second. When the heart begins to function again, the improvement is that it gets to its normal rhythm, and this type of procedure is done under anesthesia.

There are also some cases in which the Atrial Fibrillation can't be brought back to a normal heart rhythm. When this happens, the main purpose is to slow the heart rate, called the rate control procedure. Usually, doctors have prescribed medication like digoxin, or lanoxin, and it is a drug that can control the heart rate when it rests but doesn’t have the same effect during its activity. Most of the patients require other effective or alternative medications, including calcium channel blockers or beta blockers. In almost all the cases, the patient’s heart rate must be between 60 and 100 beats a minute when he’s at rest, and usually the doctor can give some guidelines for maximal heart rate. People who suffer with Atrial Fibrillation are exposed to high risk of developing blood clots that can lead to a heart stroke. The doctor usually prescribes blood-thinning medications, or anticoagulants, including warfarin, or Coumadin, and aspirin, to treat the irregular heartbeat.