Overview
Cardiac ablation is a treatment for irregular heartbeats, called arrhythmias. It uses heat or cold energy to create tiny scars in the heart. The scars block faulty heart signals and restore a typical heartbeat.
Cardiac ablation is most often done using thin, flexible tubes called catheters that are inserted through a blood vessel. Less commonly, ablation is done during heart surgery.
Types
Why it’s done
Cardiac ablation is a treatment to stop or prevent irregular heartbeats, called arrhythmias.
An arrhythmia happens when the electrical signals that tell the heart to beat don’t work as they should. The heart may beat too fast or too slow. Or the pattern of the heartbeat may be irregular.
Depending on the type of irregular heartbeat, cardiac ablation may be one of the first treatments. Other times, it’s done when medicines or other treatments don’t work.
A healthcare professional may recommend cardiac ablation if:
- Medicines to treat an irregular heartbeat don’t work for you.
- Medicines to treat an irregular heartbeat cause you serious side effects.
- You have a type of irregular heartbeat that does well with this treatment, such as Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome or supraventricular tachycardia.
- You have a high risk of sudden cardiac arrest or other complications.
