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Heart procedures and devices

If you have a heart condition, your doctor may recommend treatment or procedures

The information below will help you understand the treatments or procedures that may be recommended to you.

Cardioversion may be used to return your heart to a normal rhythm if you have an abnormal rhythm.

Electrical cardioversion

In electrical cardioversion, your heart is given a small electrical 'shock' while you're under an anaesthetic.

Pharmacological cardioversion

In pharmacological cardioversion, heart medications are used to return your heart to a normal rhythm. 

Catheter ablation can be used to treat abnormal heart rhythms. Catheter ablation process:

The cardiologist inserts a long, thin tube (catheter) with an electrode at the tip into a blood vessel in your leg
The catheter travels up through the artery to your heart
The electrode emits radiofrequency waves to inactivate the part of the heart that’s creating or passing abnormal signals.

This is a procedure to open a narrowing in your artery. It improves blood flow to your heart.

Click through the arrows to see how a stent is inserted and expanded

This procedure is used to open a narrowing in your artery to improve blood flow to your heart. Commonly used terms for this procedure include:

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)
Coronary angioplasty
Stent implantation.

The cardiologist inserts a small deflated balloon through a main artery in your groin or wrist, and moves it to the heart's artery, using an X-ray machine to see what they are doing. The balloon is inflated inside the narrowed part of your artery.

After that, the cardiologist may use a stent to keep the artery open. A stent is a tiny expandable tube. The balloon is deflated and taken out and the stent stays in place, to help stop the narrowing recurring.

Defibrillation helps restore a normal heart rhythm when your heart stops beating properly during cardiac arrest. It may also be used to treat other heart rhythm problems (e.g. if your heart beats too fast).

Paddles or pads are put on your chest and a regulated electrical current is applied to your heart to make it start beating regularly again. If it is done as an urgent lifesaving measure, there may not be enough time to use an anaesthetic, and you may feel a thumping sensation in the chest. In less urgent situations you will be given a mild anaesthetic. 

You may be given an implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) – see below.

Heart bypass’ full name is coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG or CAGS – also referred to as 'cabbage').

When your coronary arteries are badly narrowed or blocked, treatments like medicines, angioplasty and stents may not work well enough. You may need surgery to improve blood flow to your heart, relieve angina symptoms and prevent heart attacks and more damage.

The surgeon takes a healthy blood vessel from somewhere else in your body and attaches it to either side of the blocked artery so that blood can bypass the blockage. The healthy blood vessel may be a vein from your leg, or an artery from inside your chest or your wrist.

Heart valve problem can sometimes be treated with procedures similar to coronary angioplasty. If not, surgery may be needed. Heart valve surgery repairs or replaces heart valves that aren’t working properly and helps your heart to pump blood.

To replace the valves, the surgeon may use mechanical valves or bio-prosthetic valves (specially treated valves from pigs or cows, or sometimes from human donors).

An ICD is a small device that's put under the skin on your chest and connected to your heart with electrodes.

An ICD can:

Correct an abnormal heartbeat (arrhythmia) by making your heart beat regularly
Give your heart controlled electric shocks to make it beat normally again if it has a life-threatening arrhythmia
Support the heartbeat (like a pacemaker) if it’s beating very slowly.

ICDs can also store information about your heart's activity for your doctor to check.

The heart has a natural pacemaker to make it beat normally. If that’s not working reliably, an artificial pacemaker can be inserted to do the same job.

An artificial pacemaker is a small device that is put under the skin on your chest, below your collar bone. It has one or more wires that connect to your heart’s chambers. Pacemakers produces small electrical currents that stimulate your heart to pump regularly.

Modern pacemakers are very comfortable, reliable and sophisticated electronics. A pacemaker’s battery can last between 5-15 years, depending on how much your heart relies on it. Your doctor will check the battery and replace it when needed.

Thrombolytic therapy is a treatment that administers medicines through a drip to dissolve a blood clot that is narrowing or blocking a coronary artery. This improves blood flow to your heart muscle and around your body.

Heart procedures and devices

If you have a heart condition, your doctor may recommend treatment or procedures

Electrical cardioversion

Pharmacological cardioversion

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