Your heart has its own electrical system. It keeps your heart beating regularly day and night.
Catheter Ablation for ArrhythmiaYour heart has its own electrical system. It keeps your heart beating regularly day and night.But sometimes a health condition can cause that electrical system to not work as it should. This can cause your heart to beat too fast, too slow, or out-of-sync.An irregular heartbeat is called a cardiac arrhythmia. Catheter ablation is a procedure to correct cardiac arrhythmias when medicines used to treat them don't work.In this procedure, a thin tube called a catheter is threaded through a blood vessel to your heart. There, heat is used to destroy the cells causing the arrhythmia. Once the abnormal electrical signals are interrupted, your normal heart rhythm can take over again.Before the ProcedureBefore your procedure, you may have a physical exam, blood tests, or other kinds of tests. If you're a woman, be sure to tell your healthcare provider if you're pregnant or might be pregnant.Tell your healthcare provider about all the medications and supplements you take, and if you have any allergies.Your surgeon will explain what happens during the procedure. He or she will also talk with you about any risks or complications that may happen. This is the time to ask any questions you have about the procedure.You'll be asked to sign a consent form that gives your healthcare provider permission to do the procedure. Read the form carefully and ask questions if anything is not clear.You'll be asked to not eat or drink for several hours before the procedure.What to ExpectOn the day of your procedure, you'll go to a room called the "cath lab" at the hospital or surgical center. In the cath lab, you'll lie on a table.Your healthcare provider will inject medication into a vein in your arm to help you relax. You'll still be awake but very drowsy.Medicine will be used to numb the skin where the catheter or catheters will be inserted. Your healthcare provider will thread the catheters into a blood vessel in your leg, arm, or neck.Next, your provider will use X-rays to guide the catheters through the blood vessel to your heart. Using tools in the catheters, your healthcare provider can measure the electrical activity at specific points in your heart. This will help to find the exact trouble spot or spots.Then, electrodes on the tip of a catheter are used to destroy small areas of tissue with heat. Or the provider may use cryoablation to freeze the tissue. Either of these methods interrupts the abnormal electrical signals that cause the arrhythmia.After the ProcedureAfter the catheter is removed, you'll be taken to a recovery room. Your healthcare provider will place a bandage over the catheter insertion site to allow the area to heal and to prevent bleeding.If the catheter was threaded through a blood vessel in your leg, you'll need to lie down and keep your leg straight for several hours.You may have some bruising or swelling around the catheter site. This is normal and usually goes away within a few weeks.You may be told to take it easy for the next few days. Be sure to follow all instructions from your healthcare provider. You may have to wait a week or two before you go back to your normal routine.Sometimes catheter ablation doesn't fix the arrhythmia. If so, you may need other treatments.Things to RememberCatheter ablation can help find the source of your arrhythmia and fix it.The procedure can be used when medicines to treat the arrhythmia don't work.Your healthcare provider will insert a long, thin tube into a blood vessel in your arm, leg, or neck. Then he or she will guide it to your heart with the help of X-rays.Electrodes on the catheter will be used to destroy small areas of tissue in your heart in order to restore your regular heart rhythm.What We Have LearnedCatheter ablation can find and fix electrical problems in your heart. True or False? The answer is true. Through the catheter, your health care provider can locate the exact trouble spot causing the abnormal electrical signal and destroy it.Your healthcare provider will use MRI to help find the trouble spots on your heart. True or False? The answer is false. Special tools inside the catheter are used to measure your heart's activity and find the trouble spots where treatment is needed.
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