Your
heart has a “natural pacemaker”. This natural pacemaker consists of small
areas of the heart that keep the heart beating regularly by stimulating the
electrical current which makes the heart contract (beat). When this natural
pacemaker is not functioning properly, the heart will not beat as it should
and can beat at a dangerously fast rate. Depending on the severity of this
fast and/or irregular heartbeat, your physician may decide that you need
Radiofrequency Ablation. This is done as an outpatient procedure at the
hospital in the Electrophysiology Lab.
For this procedure, you will be
given a sedative through an IV line, and the physician will insert an
electrode catheter (thin, soft, coated wires) into a large vein or artery in
your groin, neck or shoulder. This catheter will help to “map” where the
electrical impulses are originating and the pathways they take. This will
help the physician know the exact area that needs to be ablated. The
catheter will then send high frequency radio waves near the problematic area
of the heart where it will destroy just those cells. The rest of the heart
will remain unharmed. Once the cardiologist is finished, you will recover
in the hospital for a few hours and then go home. For a few months after
the procedure, it’s normal to still feel “skipping” beats or the sensation
that the rhythm problem is starting to return. In most cases it doesn’t,
but follow-up visits with your cardiologist are essential to your long-term
care to ensure that they rhythm hasn’t returned.
