Cardiac ablation
Find a heart specialistIf you’ve been diagnosed with a heart rhythm disorder, we provide expert evaluation and a full range of treatments to help get your heart back on a proper beat.
Your doctor may recommend cardiac ablation if medicine doesn’t control your heart rhythm problem or you’re in danger of experiencing sudden cardiac arrest.
What is cardiac ablation?
Cardiac ablation is a minimally invasive surgery that can help correct heart arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation (AFib). Ablation uses either gentle burning or freezing to treat small areas of heart muscle that are causing your abnormal heartbeat.
What causes irregular heartbeat
Heart rhythm symptoms often come and go. That can make them challenging to identify and diagnose. Our experienced cardiac electrophysiology team uses sophisticated equipment to pinpoint and treat the precise causes of your conditions.
Heart rhythm treatments
To determine whether ablation might help control your heart rhythm, your doctor will review your medical history and conduct a physical exam. Your doctor also may order tests including:
- Electrocardiogram (EKG): EKGs use electrodes attached to your chest to monitor your heart’s electrical activity.
- Heart ultrasound: Echocardiograms use sound waves that help create images of your heart.
- Holter monitor: You’ll wear this portable EKG monitor at home for a set amount of time.
You'll see your primary care doctor or cardiologist for personalized guidelines to prepare for cardiac ablation, including:
- Refraining from eating or drinking anything after midnight the night before your procedure
- Receiving instructions on how to get ready for your procedure, including any medications you may need to stop taking
- Answering your questions and concerns
The procedure should take up to six hours. Before the procedure, you’ll receive an intravenous line to your arm that will give you medications, including a mild anesthetic, so you don’t feel any pain.
Your doctor will place electrocardiogram electrodes on your chest to monitor your heart rate, blood pressure, and other vital signs throughout treatment.
After numbing the area in your groin, neck, or arm, your doctor will thread catheters through a blood vessel in your groin, neck, or arm and guide them to your heart. Your doctor then will send energy pulses through the catheters to remove the heart tissue that is causing the arrhythmia.
While we’re doing cardiac ablation, we may also recommend a minor procedure called hybrid ablation. We can perform the hybrid ablation procedure at the same time as your catheter ablation, which may improve your results.
You’ll need to stay in bed for a few hours at the hospital while we monitor your heart activity and make sure we’ve corrected all the arrhythmias. Your doctor will let you know if you can go home the same day or whether you’ll need to stay in the hospital for a few days to recover.
Make sure you have someone drive you home if you’re leaving the same day. If you’re staying in the hospital a few days, you might be able to drive yourself home.
Your doctor will discuss detailed recovery and follow-up instructions, including if you’ll still need to take medication to help control arrhythmias.
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