Common treatments for managing AF and preventing clot formation include anticoagulant therapy. Because the blood may pool in the heart during atrial fibrillation, these medications prevent the blood from clotting and causing a stroke/heart attack/pulmonary embolism. Side effects of these medications include the risk for bleeding. People taking these must be cautious with their physical activities to avoid injury and internal bleeding.
More invasive treatment options include cardioversion and surgical ablation. Cardioversion is an acute treatment option used to reset the hearts rhythm. It is usually done when the heart has been in AF for less than 48 hours. Time is a factor as cardioverting the heart after a prolonged arrhythmia may force a clot out of the heart and cause a stroke. Cardioversion may also fail to restore the hearts rhythm and possibly induce a more life threatening rhythm.
Ablation is becoming a common treatment option which is the closest treatment to a cure at the current time. This procedure is performed by a surgeon, with a rather quick recovery time for being considered a surgery. A catheter is threaded into the atria and destroys the problem tissue in the heart which is causing the electrical malfunctioning. Like any surgery there are risk factors, especially when the location is in the heart. Risks include stroke, trauma to the heart tissue, and cardiac tamponade (a life threatening problem which occurs when fluid accumulates in between the heart muscle and the lining sac which surrounds it).
These treatments can be extremely beneficial to the patient but anticoagulant therapy is often continued for life.
The following table presents a model for identifying whether a problem exists and the recommended options to pursue.
No comments:
Post a Comment