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Mayo Clinic is internationally recognized for its expertise and experience in the treatment of heart arrhythmia, in which the heart beats too fast or too slow. Patients benefit from Mayo Clinic's expertise and experience in diagnoses and treatment, including some complex procedures that are offered only at a few medical centers in the United States.
Mayo Clinic is an international leader in catheter ablation and implantable devices and uses the most advanced technology to treat arrhythmias. Mayo has over 25 years of experience in treating patients who have a variety of heart arrhythmias and over 10,000 electrophysiology procedures have been performed during the past 6 years.
The medical team for heart arrhythmia patients at Mayo Clinic is led by electrophysiologists. These are cardiologists (medical experts in heart care) with specialized training in the diagnosis and treatment of heart rhythm disorders. Diagnosis often includes electrophysiologic testing for potentially serious arrhythmias. Read more about arrhythmia diagnosis.
The decision for medical treatment, and the method selected, can be made only after a comprehensive diagnosis. The Mayo Clinic Model of Care emphasizes a team approach to provide the best possible care for each patient. This model means the patient's individual case is examined from the perspectives of highly subspecialized experts, who collaborate to come up with the most accurate diagnosis and the most effective course of treatment.
Medical treatment is usually required if the arrhythmia is causing significant symptoms or if it is putting the patient at risk of more serious complications. Some non-serious types of arrhythmia do not require medical treatment, in which case the patient will be recommended for regular medical check-ups.
Depending on the cause of the irregular heart beat, arrhythmias can be treated with:
Mayo Clinic offers patients, when appropriate, experimental treatments through Mayo's clinical trials, which often are unavailable at other medical centers.
Follow-up care for patients is another essential component of Mayo Clinic's care for heart arrhythmia. Read more about arrhythmia treatment.
Heart rhythm problems (arrhythmias) occur when there is a malfunction in the electrical impulses to the heart that coordinate how the heart beats and, as a result, the heart beats too fast, too slow or irregularly.
Most people have experienced occasional, brief, usually harmless arrhythmias, such as feeling a skipped, fluttering or racing heartbeat. However, more than 4 million Americans, most over age 60, experience heart arrhythmias that may cause bothersome — sometimes even dangerous — signs or symptoms. These may include shortness of breath, fainting or even sudden cardiac death — an unexpected loss of heart function, breathing and consciousness that leads to death within minutes unless the person receives emergency medical treatment to restart the heart.
Read more at
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