Management Options for Atrial Fibrillation (afib)

This week we will dive into the different management options for atrial fibrillation (afib) focusing not only on medical therapies but procedural options.

We briefly discussed anticoagulation for stroke prevention in a previous post – but what do we do for our patients who cannot tolerate anticoagulation?!?!?!?

Fortunately we now have a number of options…

The three most common being:
Watchman Flex from Boston Scientific Cardiology
AtriClip from AtriCure, Inc.
Amulet from Abbott

I have the most experience with the first two.

Both the Watchman and Amulet are implanted percutaneously through an IV in the groin / it’s a safe and effective procedure.

The AtriClip is placed by a Cardio Thoracic Surgeon through a small lateral chest incision – more to come on AtriClip and The Convergent Ablation strategy in the coming week!

The goal of all three is to protect our most vulnerable patients from potentially devistating stroke with out the need for long term Anticoagulation.

This becomes an attractive option for our patients who are too high risk for or cannot tolerate anticoagulation.

If you or a loved one has symptoms of atrial fibrillation, make an appointment for a health checkup. You may be referred to a doctor like me trained in cardiac arrhythmias, called an Electrophysiologist.

You are not alone!!

Stay tuned for more to come!

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Always accepting new patients at 

CVAM, CardioVascular Associates of Mesa, P.C. 

Cardiovascular Associates Surgery and Electrophysiology (CASE)