Most arrhythmias are considered harmless and are left untreated. Once your doctor has documented that you have an arrhythmia, he or she will need to find out whether it's abnormal or merely reflects the heart's normal processes. He or she will also determine whether your arrhythmia is clinically significant that is, whether it causes symptoms or puts you at risk for more serious arrhythmias or complications of arrhythmias in the future. If your arrhythmia is abnormal and clinically significant, your doctor will set a treatment plan.
If you have an arrhythmia, treatment may or may not be necessary. Usually, it's required only if the arrhythmia is causing significant symptoms or if it's putting you at risk of a more serious arrhythmia or arrhythmia complication.
If slow heartbeats (bradycardias) don't have a cause that can be corrected, doctors often treat them with a pacemaker because there aren't any medications that can reliably speed up your heart.
A pacemaker is a small device that's usually implanted near your collarbone. One or more electrode-tipped wires run from the pacemaker through your blood vessels to your inner heart. If your heart rate is too slow or if it stops, the pacemaker sends out electrical impulses that stimulate your heart to beat at a steady rate.
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Cardiac catheter ablation
For fast heartbeats (tachycardias), treatments may include one or more of the following:
These maneuvers affect the nervous system that controls your heartbeat (vagus nerves), often causing your heart rate to slow. However, vagal maneuvers don't work for all types of arrhythmias.
If you have atrial fibrillation, your doctor may prescribe blood-thinning medications to help keep dangerous blood clots from forming.
In the procedure, a shock is delivered to your heart through paddles or patches on your chest. The current affects the electrical impulses in your heart and can restore a normal rhythm.
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You should know how to take your pulse especially if you have an artificial pacemaker.
Certain substances can contribute to an abnormal/irregular heartbeat, including:
Many heart arrhythmias are harmless. However, if they are highly irregular or result from a weak or damaged heart, arrhythmias can cause severe and potentially fatal symptoms and complications. If arrhythmia is left untreated, the heart may not be able to pump enough blood to the body. This can damage the heart, the brain, or other organs.
While medications are used to control abnormal heart rhythms, ablation procedures can cure some types of arrhythmia completely. Sometimes atrial fibrillation does not cause any symptoms and a person who has it is completely unaware that their heart rate is irregular. Sometimes atrial fibrillation seems to go away and the heart goes back to its normal rhythm -the condition may then be deemed to have 'resolved'. This can be caused by pericarditis (membrane or sac around your heart is inflamed), alcohol or other drugs, acute illness, or electrolyte abnormalities.
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The treatments used for arrhythmias include: medication to stop or prevent an arrhythmia or control the rate of an arrhythmia. cardioversion a treatment that uses electricity to shock the heart back into a normal rhythm while you are anaesthetised or sedated.
Arrhythmias can be caused by:
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