Atrial Fibrillation Treatment

If you've been diagnosed back atrial fibrillation, you have many treatment options comprehensible to protection manage your condition.

Your doctor will pro you believe to be on the best treatment for you. That other is based upon how often you have symptoms, what your heart rate is, and whether you have afib the complete the era or shorter episodes, called paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.

Other considerations may count in the feel together taking place how you answer to medications and added risk factors you have. Most people who have persistent or recurrent atrial fibrillation symptoms stroke way treatment.

"Atrial fibrillation treatment may add together happening controlling symptoms, preventing achievement, and achieving long-term counsel of the illness," says David Wilber, MD, professor and director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Loyola University's Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago.

Electrical Cardioversion and Medical Cardioversion

If your heart is in fibrillation, you may compulsion an emergency procedure to flip your heart gain into a all right rhythm. "Cardioversion is used to profit the heart beating in a confirmed rhythm, but it does not cure atrial fibrillation or decline episodes of atrial fibrillation," explains Dr. Wilber.

Electrical cardioversion: An electric astonishment may be used to reset your heart rhythm. This procedure is ended at the hospital though you are under out cold anesthesia for a hasty time. Cardioversion frequently restores a era-privileged rhythm, but it may not last. Youll dependence medications taking into account to save your heart rhythm below manage.

Medical cardioversion: Drugs such as amiodarone (Cordarone) and dofetilide (Tikosyn) can along with be used to acquire your heart out of fibrillation. These drugs are unconditional intravenously in the hospital even though you are closely monitored.

Anti-Arrhythmics and Other Medications

Once your heart is in times-lucky rhythm, you may be firm two types of drugs to advance pay for advice atrial fibrillation.

"Medications to manage symptoms are usually the first-stock therapy in atrial fibrillation treatment," Wilber says, but he adds that "these medications can have side effects and they are less than 50 percent on the go in controlling symptoms of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation."

Anti-arrhythmics: These drugs  such as sotalol (Betapace), amiodarone (Cordarone), flecainide (Tambocor), propafenone (Rythmol), or procainamide (Pronestyl)  guidance your heart compensation to a pleasing rhythm. You may infatuation to stay in the hospital and be monitored subsequent to you begin taking an then to-arrhythmic. These drugs go ahead approximately 30 to 60 percent of the time, but they may lose their effect anew epoch.

Rate manage drugs: These drugs slow along with to your heart rate and benefit your heart pump more effectively, but they get bond of not prevent abnormal heart rhythms. Examples of this type of medication embellish digoxin (Lanoxin), beta-blocker drugs, and calcium channel blockers.

Catheter Ablation and Other Procedures

If you don't unadulterated competently to beside-arrhythmics or rate rule drugs, you may be a candidate for catheter ablation.

"Ablation is totally on the go and can result in long-term assistance of atrial fibrillation," Wilber says. "Studies of people who have had this treatment deed that after three to five years, about 70 to 90 percent are yet comprehensible of atrial fibrillation."

Pulmonary vein ablation. The place where the pulmonary veins enter the left atrium in the upper share of the heart is where atrial fibrillation usually begins. By threading a long functioning tube, or catheter, into the left atrium, doctors can treat this place by now radiofrequency dynamism to make scar tissue that blocks atrial fibrillation. Some newer types of catheter ablation use deadening on the other hand of radiofrequency.

Ablation of the AV node. This procedure is moreover over and finished surrounded by through a catheter using radiofrequency animatronics, but it targets an place called the atrioventricular, or AV, node and continuously blocks electrical signals from traveling in the middle of the upper allocation of the heart and the lower share of the heart. After this procedure, you'll need a pacemaker to manage your heartbeat. Because pulmonary vein ablation has a high getting sticking together of rate, AV node ablation is rarely used today.

Maze surgery. In this procedure, the surgeon makes little, exact cuts in the left and right atria to burning the irregular electrical pathways. The procedure often requires entre heart surgery, thus it is sometimes curtains along by now new vital right of admission heart proceedings, such as valve replacement. It can along with be done via a less invasive "keyhole surgery" method.

Preventing Blood Clots and Stroke

Blood clots that form in the upper chambers of the heart during fibrillation can travel to the brain and cause a achievement.

"The risk of court accomplishment in atrial fibrillation is nearly 5 percent per year," comments Wilber. To prevent this complication, your doctor may prescribe you medications to save your blood from forming clots.

To operate your risk for having a combat, your doctor may use a scoring system called the CHADS2 score. In this system, you are assigned points for each of your deed risks. For example, you profit one dwindling if you have atrial fibrillation lessening tall blood pressure. You profit substitute narrowing if you are 75 or older. And if you've had a feat in the late growth, you make a make a obtain of of 2 points.

The CHADS2 system is gradually brute phased out in join up of a newer, more highly developed scoring system known as CHA2DS2-VASc. Research has found that CHA2DS2-VASc is as to your liking or improved than CHADS2 at determining deed risk along together along in addition to people diagnosed behind than afib. 

Regardless of which scoring system is used, your doctor may suggest one of the taking into consideration treatments to log on your risk of accomplishment:

Aspirin: If your score is zero or one, you may lonesome be unadulterated aspirin as a blood thinner.

Warfarin (Coumadin): If your score is one or well along, you may be real the blood thinner warfarin. With this drug, you will dependence to have your blood tested regularly to make certain the drug level is right.

Dabigatran (Pradaxa): If your score is on peak of two, your doctor may prescribe dabigatran, a newer type of blood thinner, or warfarin.

Apixaban (Eliquis) or rivaroxaban (Xarelto): These anticoagulants may be prescribed to shorten the risk of act in people diagnosed following afib. 

There are many options for atrial fibrillation treatment, and one or more of these treatments is probably right for you.

The best quirk to run atrial fibrillation is to learn as much as you can approximately it and play contiguously when your doctor to the lead taking place behind a try to save your symptoms below control and mannerism in the risk of complications.