How is cardiac arrhythmia treated?

Options such as cardioversion or medication may alleviate symptoms of cardiac arrythmia. A procedure that often cures the problem is cardiac ablation, which creates a lesion in the heart area that fires abnormal electrical impulses.

Arrhythmia—which simply means an abnormality of the heart rhythm—may range from the completely benign to the immediately life-threatening. Likewise, the treatment of arrhythmias may involve doing nothing, treating with medications, treating with catheter ablation or Cardioversion, or treating with implantable pacemakers or defibrillators. Catheter ablation involves placing small plastic tubes into the veins in your leg and advancing them into the heart where energy—either burning or freezing energy—may be used to destroy the tissue inside the heart that is producing the arrhythmia. Cardioversion is the process where a patient is temporarily put to sleep and then energy is directed through heart (from patches applied to the skin) to stop an arrhythmia and restore normal rhythm. Pacemakers are used to keep the heart from beating too slowly. Defibrillators do everything a pacemaker does, but also can treat life-threatening heart rhythms where the lower chambers of the heart are beating dangerously fast. Your physician and you should discuss in details the indications, risks, potential benefits, and other options for treatment of your specific arrhythmia issue.