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Cardiac Arrhythmia And The Ablation Therapy: Treatment Without Major Surgery!

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Very often people love saying, “The rhythm of your heartbeat is my favorite song!” Just imagine the point when your heartbeats go irregular, when the rhythm of your heartbeat gets disturbed. It is very much obvious, you cannot think of your heart condition showing irregular heart rhythms. But, there are some innocent hearts which suffer from such irregularities in heartbeat. These are the patient suffering from a cardiac issue with problems in heartbeat is called Arrhythmia. This current article will revolve around the abnormal condition of Arrhythmia and also focus on one of the best known treatment procedure for the irregular heartbeats, called the Cardiac Ablation Therapy. Cardiac ablation therapy is an invasive procedure that involves minor surgical procedure. Procedure involves insertion of therapeutic catheter or the catheter with electrodes through the vein in to heart. Electrode is used for reading the victim’s electrical impulses of heart and to treat the irregular conditions. So let us check out what we have to say on Cardiac Arrhythmia and The Cardiac Ablation Therapy.” Because all you want is to count your finest blessing, i.e. your melodious heartbeat”!

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Cardiac Arrhythmia And The Ablation Therapy
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Know About Cardiac Arrhythmia:

Arrhythmia is an irregular condition of the heart where the patient suffers from an irregular or problematic rhythm of heartbeat. It might happen that the sufferer may meet with quick heartbeats or very slow beats of heart or may be in an irregular pattern. The most common symptoms of Arrhythmia includes palpitation (feeling of heart beats), slow or fast heartbeats, skipping of heartbeats, chest pain, shortness in breath and diaphoresis (severe sweating). This type of ill condition of heartbeat is caused mainly in the patients suffering from various cardiac diseases or disorders like the Congenital heart disease, Ischemic heart disease, diseases of heart valves, heart inflammations, high blood pressure etc. However Arrhythymia is also caused in patients with some non-heart related disorders like persons with high thyroid hormone, the elderly people or with ageing, and side effects of medications.

There are a lot of types of Arrhythymia, which includes premature atrial contraction, premature ventricular contraction, atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, PSVT, ventricular fibrillation, supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), ventricular tachycardia, sinus node dysfunction and heart block.

An Overview On The Cardiac Ablation Therapy:

Cardiac ablation therapy is a modern therapeutic procedure to treat cardiac arrhythmia mostly performed in hospital surgical center by an advanced trained cardiologist. Cardiologist or cardiac surgeon will insert the catheter and electrodes (therapeutic catheter) through a needle in to heart. The advanced electrode connected to sophisticated device helps in studying the electrical impulses of heart and also helps in treating the irregularity of heart rhythms. The abnormal heart pacemaker is identified following meticulous study of the heart. The radiofrequency electrode is passed through catheter following mapping of the heart. The radiofrequency needle is placed over the abnormal pacemaker and pacemaker is treated with high radio frequency waves. Radiofrequency waves generate heat at the tip and side of the electrodes. Heat is used to ablate the abnormal pacemaker. The extreme heat produced helps in creating scar within and around abnormal pacemaker located within heart tissue. Treatment prevents triggering of abnormal impulses generating and causing arrhythmia. It can be said that the electrodes are used to destruct the pacemaker, which causes irregular or abnormal heartbeats.

Arrhythmia Treatment Via Ablation Therapy:

Mild sedatives may be given to the patient to keep him relaxed during the procedure. Treatment of Arrhythmia via The Cardiac Ablation Therapy involves several steps and performed in short period of time or may prolong for 3 to 6 hours. The patient will be under the supervision of anesthesiologist doctor and nurse anesthetist during the entire procedure. Each symptom will be noted by the experienced cardiac nurse coordinator.

Procedure Details Are As Follows-

  • The Catheter is placed into one of the blood vessels via a small incision in the skin. The catheter is guided through the blood vessels towards the heart by the cardiologist or cardiac surgeon with the help of live x-ray images.
  • Once catheter is placed, several electrodes are passed one at a time through catheter. Electrodes are used to check the heart beat, function of the various biological pacemakers and evaluate the abnormal pacemaker. Radiofrequency generating electrode is passed through the catheter once the location of abnormal pacemaker is identified. Radiofrequency heat then uses the electrode to ablate the abnormal pacemaker.
  • This therapeutic catheter or the electrodes help find any defect in the heart and heart rhythm through the proper study on the electrical impulses of the heart.

Effectiveness Of Ablation Therapy On Arrhythmia: The Success Rate and The Rate Of Complication!

In majority of cases, this Cardiac Ablation Therapy has a greater percentage of success rates than the complications involved. Let us make a list of the effectiveness of Ablation therapy on some of the major forms of Arrhythmias.

  • Ablation Therapy In Supraventricular Tachycardia(SVT) Arrhythmia: The rapid electrical impulses in heart causing irregular beats in case of SVT, are originated from the area above the ventricles. Typically the patient suffers from rapid burst of heartbeats for seconds that may also continue for hours. In such case the victim may have more than 160 heartbeats per minute. Such cases are treated by Ablation therapy with a greater success rate and involving very lower rate of complicacy.
  • Ablation Therapy In Atrial Fibrillation Arrhythmia: It is has been known that the Cardiac Ablation Therapy has been into a successful practice for treating the arrhythmia caused due to the heart complications like Atrial Fibrillation. Studies have found the success rate for such a treatment in the AF irregularities of heartbeat is more than 85% and there are only 1-2% of any complications involved.
  • Ablation Therapy In Ventricular Fibrillation Arrhythmia: The uncoordinated fluttering of heart’s ventricles cause Ventricular Fibrillation Arrhythmia or rapid heartbeats. Here the patient’s ventricles are unable to pump blood properly, which in turn cause deprival of various vital organs including the brain. Researchers have explained that Ablation therapy for Arrhythmia caused by Ventricular fibrillation is not very much effective and has only about 50% of success rate.

Side Effects of Ablation Therapy on the Patient’s Health:

“There is no great achievement without any risk involved!” One of the most potential and successful known therapy for Arrhythmia has also got some of the risks involved with the procedure. Here below are some of the side effects of Ablation Therapy on the patient’s health.

  • There may be bleeding due to the insertion of catheter and also some associated pain.
  • There are rare chances for blood vessel damage due to the catheter insertion.
  • Sometimes heart stroke may occur because of the blood clot caused during the process.
  • There is rare possibility for heart punctures by catheter.
  • The veins carrying blood to heart from lungs may get narrower with the insertion of catheter. This condition is called as Stenosis.

Final Speech To End:

Now, from the above article it is very much a well known fact that The Ablation Therapy has more of the effectiveness, than the risk factors. It can be rightly said that the success rates are more while there are rare chances of complications or risks with the Ablation therapy for Arrhythmia. However, it is always about the expert consultation. So, please make sure that you have reached an expert consultation for knowing more about the risks and benefits of the Ablation Therapy. It is also advised to inform your doctor about previous medical conditions or current medication you are with, before undergoing the therapeutic process for treating Arrhythmia.

“Every Human Heart Beat Is A Universe Of Possibilities. Do Not Let It Go Abnormal!”

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Team PainAssist
Team PainAssist
Written, Edited or Reviewed By: Team PainAssist, Pain Assist Inc. This article does not provide medical advice. See disclaimer
Last Modified On:November 21, 2018

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