It greatly increases your risk ofstroke.Unfortunately, itstreatmentoften remains a real problem for both healthcare providers and patients.
For most arrhythmias, then, ablation simply requires locating that small abnormal area and disrupting it.
However, it requires major open-heart surgery, which comes with all the associated risks.
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Creating the linear scars necessary to disrupt atrial fibrillation is much more difficult with a catheterization procedure.
(Thepulmonaryveins are the blood vessels that deliver oxygenated blood from the lungs to the heart.)
This new technology has made the ablation of atrial fibrillation much more likely than it used to be.
Ablation works best in patients who have relatively brief episodes of atrial fibrillationso-calledparoxysmal atrial fibrillation.
However, it’s still considered superior to medication therapy in those with heart failure.
Ablation may be tried after medication therapy has failed to control AFib adequately.
By comparison, just 7% of people who received another medication were free from AFib symptoms.
Additionally, the successful ablation of atrial fibrillation has been shown to reduce the risk of strokes.
Procedure-related death occurs in between 1 in 5 of every 1,000 patients having an ablation for atrial fibrillation.
This means knowing your electrophysiologist’s personal experience with ablation procedures for atrial fibrillation.
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