|
Keeping a Steady Beat – Major Arrhythmia Advances Continue at Penn
At the University of Pennsylvania Health System, we have one of the top heart rhythm
(electrophysiology) treatment centers in the United States.
Normally the heart beats in a regular and steadily timed manner, with
temporary variations occurring as a result of a number of factors. However, sometimes the
heart's electrical cells cause the heart to beat too slowly, too rapidly, or in an uncoordinated
fashion; causing what is commonly referred to as an arrhythmia.
The most common cardiac arrhythmia is atrial fibrillation (A-Fib),
a disturbance of the heart's electrical system that causes an irregular, rapid heart rate and affects
approximately 10 percent of the population at some point in their lifetime. A person with A-Fib may
experience the following conditions:
If left untreated, Atrial fibrillation may lead to serious illness. But the treatment of A-Fib is not always a simple matter.
“For many physicians, the question is
often ‘What is the best treatment for those who are symptomatic?'” says
Kar-Lai Wong, MD, director of
Electrophysiology at Pennsylvania
Hospital. While long-term medical
therapy can prevent recurrence in some patients, at least 50 percent of those treated are resistant to medication.
But there are alternatives. According
to Andrea Russo, MD, director of
Electrophysiology at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, “We have an extremely high success rate using ablation to cure atrial fibrillation, which for some
patients, may mean eliminating the
need for medication.”
Our doctors are not only working
towards helping people with complicated cardiovascular conditions like A-Fib,
but towards curing them. Francis
Marchlinski, MD, director of the Cardiac
Electrophysiology Program at the
University of Pennsylvania Health
System, explains “Catheter ablative therapy, one of the latest treatments,
has allowed us to provide long-term
elimination of A-Fib and its associated severe symptoms – the majority of our patients no longer need antiarrhythmic drug therapy and have a dramatic
improvement in their quality of life.” This is just the latest advancement.
We have pioneered ablative therapies
for atrial fibrillation and have more
experience with this technique than
any health system in the region.
For more than 25 years, our electrophysiology team of physicians, nurses and researchers have
continually advanced the field of
cardiovascular medicine and remain
at the forefront of developing new
technologies and techniques to treat patients with abnormal heart rhythms.
We consistently rank among the
best in cardiology and cardiovascular surgery by U.S. News & World Report each year due in no small part to a proven track record of achieving success after physicians at other centers have been unsuccessful. Year after year, more
and more physicians from across the
country are referring their high-risk patients here. Furthermore, a
growing number of doctors come to
Penn for the best education in the field
of cardiac electrophysiology.
We have eight fully equipped and
dedicated electrophysiology procedure rooms,
giving doctors the ability to ensure patients
receive the best possible treatment solution,
whether it's medications, devices such as a cardiac
pacemaker or implantable cardioverter defibrillator
(ICD), or ablative therapy. We don't just use
the latest technology to treat A-Fib and other
cardiac arrhythmias, but continually
discover new and better treatments to help patients
live a better life.
|
