The treatments involve both treating the rhythm problem itself so that people don't get the rhythm problem. And if they do get it, also treating the risks associated with the stroke that comes with the rhythm problem. There's a number of options you have for patients but one of those options should include, for many patients, a blood thinning drug to help prevent stroke if they have atrial fibrillation. If you want to treat the arrhythmia, there's a number of different options that you have for treating atrial fibrillation. One is medications. And medications are anti-arrhythmic medications and we have about a dozen different rhythm-controlled medications available to us. The other alternative for patients with atrial fibrillation if medications fail, is catheter ablation. It's basically a minimally invasive procedure. With catheter ablation, a catheter is inserted through a vein in the leg and can be traced up into the heart under x-ray, using three dimensional guidance systems which we have here at JFK Medical Center. We can actually map the electrical system of the heart and identify these usual suspect cells, the areas in the heart where atrial fibrillation tends to come from. Once we have identified, mapped, and identified areas where atrial fibrillation tends to come from, we can then apply the catheter to these areas. Now, the catheter is a very special catheter. It can navigate in three dimensions. It has a temperature sensor on it. It has an internal cooling ...
Keywords: Dr. Robert S Fishel, atrial, fibrillation, treatment, catheter, heart, heart attack, cardio, cardiac, cardiology, JFK Medical Center
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