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what is arrhythmia surgery

Any irregularity in your heart’s natural rhythm is known as an arrhythmia. It’s natural for your heart to skip or flutter at times and these mild, small palpitations are not life-threatening. But there is another group of heart patients-over 4 million of them in fact-with recurrent arrhythmias, and they could be facing arrhythmia surgery.

How is arrhythmia treated?
Drug therapy is the first phase of treatment. If that does not prove to be effective, interventional procedures are implemented.

• Ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation can be treated via ICD. This is a device that uses electric impulses or a shock to restore a normal rhythm. The device’s power source is implanted in a subcutaneous pouch in your chest or the area above your stomach.

• An electronic pacemaker can be used to slow your heart rate. The pacemaker is surgically implanted near the collarbone. The pacemaker’s batteries supply emulates the effects of your heart’s natural function.

• Radiofrequency ablation is a procedure that maps the electrical pathways of the heart. Under mild sedation, a catheter is threaded through a vein and guided to your heart, where doctors utilize high-frequency radio waves to destroy source of the arrhythmia.

Arrhythmia surgery is used as a last resort, if you are not responding to the treatment protocol.

• Surgical ablation uses computerized mapping technology. Surgeons can find out which cells are acting as catalysts and eliminate the tissue with a cold probe to destroy them.

• In Atrial Fibrillation (AF) surgery, surgeons create a number of incisions in the atrium to block the unpredictable electrical impulses that cause the condition.

• Ventricular resection involves removing the area in the cardiac muscle where the arrhythmia originates.

In mild cases of rhythm irregularity, no treatment is needed. Most people with an arrhythmia lead normal, active lives. Often, avoiding substances like caffeine and alcohol are enough to manage the arrhythmia.

For more information on arrhythmia surgery, please contact a Cardiologist.

Dr. Seldon, a Heart Doctor and Cardiologist in New York City, offers same day appointments and all testing is done on site. Call us at (212) 367-8000.