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Managing AFib: understanding the treatment options

Learn about the lifestyle changes and treatment options that can help keep your heart rhythm steady.

Updated on December 4, 2024

cardiologist and patient in office
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Your heart is a muscle, but it’s also a complex machine. Electrical impulses shoot through your heart, causing it to fill up with blood and then squeeze the blood out to the rest of the body. Ordinarily, the heart works at a steady rhythm. But when these electrical signals that coordinate heartbeats are not working properly, it can result in an abnormal heartbeat, calledShow More

heart monitor, heart rate, blood pressure, beats per minute
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What is AFib?

AFib occurs when the electrical signals that regulate heart rhythm don’t move through the heart in their usual way. This causes the heart’s top chambers—called the atria—to flutter or quiver. As a result, blood doesn’t fully leave the upper chambers, causing it to pool. When blood pools it can formShow More

medicine, pill, drugs, medication, prescription
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Lifestyle changes and medication

AFib can be caused by a variety of things, including medical issues such as high blood pressure, sleep apnea, or viral infections. Lifestyle habits can trigger it, and many people are able to identify at least some of their AFib triggers. These may include heavy drinking of either caffeine orShow More

cardiologist and radiologist looking at x-ray
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Cardioversion

There are two types of procedures used to restore a normal heart rhythm. They’re called drug cardioversion and electrical cardioversion.

Drug cardioversion, also called chemical cardioversion, involves drugs being administered through an IV or taken by mouth. These drugs work to correct the heartShow More

heart procedure, stent, heart cath
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Catheter ablation

When AFib can’t be controlled by lifestyle changes, medication, or cardioversion, a procedure known as catheter ablation might help. This is a minimally invasive procedure that uses energy, such as radiofrequency, laser, or cryotherapy (cold therapy), to kill the cells that create the irregularShow More

surgeon in scrubs operating
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Surgical ablation

Surgical ablation, also known as a maze procedure, may be recommended for different types of patients. These include people who need heart surgery for another reason, those with AFib that isn’t controlled by medication and less invasive procedures, or those with a history of stroke or other bloodShow More

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Hybrid ablation

A hybrid ablation is one in which a cardiac electrophysiologist and the surgeon work together. With catheter ablation, it takes special skill to burn the back wall of the heart from the inside without damaging other nearby structures, such as the aorta (the main blood vessel leading from the heartShow More

cardiologist explaining heart diagram to patient
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Convergent ablation

Even minimally invasive ablation surgery requires the surgeon to deflate each lung to treat both sides of the heart. That’s too intense for some patients, especially those who are obese or whose lungs already don’t work well. 

In these cases, a convergent ablation may be performed. In thisShow More

Slideshow sources open slideshow sources

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. What Is An Arrhythmia? Page last updated March 24, 2022. 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Atrial Fibrillation. Page last reviewed October 14, 2022. 
Mayo Clinic. Atrial Fibrillation. July 26, 2023. 
Johns Hopkins Medicine. Chemical Cardioversion. Page accessed February 16, 2024. 
Johns Hopkins Medicine. Pacemaker Insertion. Page accessed February 16, 2024. 
American Heart Association. Surgical Procedures for Atrial Fibrillation. 
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Heart Treatments. Page last updated March 24, 2022. 
Johns Hopkins Medicine. Catheter Ablation. Page accessed February 16, 2024. 
Johns Hopkins Medicine. AFib Surgery and Maze Procedure. Page accessed February 16, 2024.
Lahey Hospital and Medical Center. Mini-Maze Procedure—Minimally Invasive Surgery. Page last updated July 20, 2021. 
Stanford Medicine. Hybrid Cardiac Ablation & Minimally Invasive Cox Maze Procedure. Page accessed February 16, 2024.
StopAfib.org (a division of the American Foundation for Women’s Health). Hybrid Ablation Procedures for Atrial Fibrillation. Page accessed February 16, 2024.

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