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SANTA MONICA, Calif. (KABC) — Atrial fibrillation is one of the fastest growing heart conditions in the United States. Doctors successfully treat the condition by burning away the defective heart tissue, causing it to become scarred, but cardiac ablation is not suitable for everyone. Now, newly approved procedures can resolve the issue in seconds.
Rob Sears, 79, became one of the first people in the United States to undergo a revolutionary procedure to treat arrhythmia, or atrial fibrillation. Mr. Sears, an avid hiker, had been inactive for nearly eight years.
“You can’t breathe, you can’t get enough oxygen. It’s kind of resigned and you’re sitting on the couch,” he says.
AFib patients are also more likely to have a stroke.
Doctors said traditional treatment with cardiac ablation was not the best option for Sears, given his age. General anesthesia is required and it takes 1 to 2 months to fully heal.
“The challenge is always that when you destroy something using heat or freezing, you can cause collateral damage because the energy doesn’t stop in the tissue,” says Sandra and Vin Scully Hart. said rhythm cardiac electrophysiologist Dr. Shefalu Doshi. Center at Providence St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica. “When you heat a pot on the stove, it does the same thing as water boiling. But the handle also gets hot.”
Doshi said the same goal of destroying defective heart tissue could be achieved using a nonthermal, high-amplitude electric field called pulsed-field ablation (PFA). Each pulse lasts 2.7 seconds.
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“We’re doing multiple applications in different areas, but they’re quick and cover a wide range of tissue, not just one small spot like before,” Doshi said. he said.
In January, the FDA approved PFA to treat atrial fibrillation. Dorsey said the procedure, which is done through a catheter, can be completed in minutes instead of three hours. Mr. Sears returned home immediately.
“When I woke up in the morning, I was surprised at how refreshed my head was,” Sears said.
“They seem to have little or no symptoms of chest pain, shortness of breath, etc.,” Doshi said.
Because it’s less invasive, it can be offered to more patients who wouldn’t be candidates for cardiac ablation, Doshi said.
“This really opens up possibilities for people with atrial fibrillation to impact their quality of life,” Doshi said.
The day after surgery, Sears took off on a road trip and is now looking forward to getting back on the trail.
“I think this is something that will benefit a lot of people besides me,” he said.
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