New treatment for AFib being offered at Ascension Sacred Heart

PANAMA CITY, Fla. ( WMBB ) – Ascension Sacred Heart is offering a new treatment for atrial fibrillation.

It’s called pulsed-field ablation.

Atrial fibrillation is a very common irregular heartbeat that can affect people of all ages. It can cause chest palpitations, fatigue, strokes, and even heart failure.

“It’s a lot more common than people actually appreciate,” said cardiac electrophysiologist Dr. Saeed Khaja.

A new FDA-approved procedure called pulsed-field ablation is dramatically safer compared to other ablation procedures.

It sends electrical currents to the heart to create a regular rhythm.

“The new technology called pulsed field, we can deliver electricity that only focuses on the heart muscle without any of the other damage that happened to the neighboring structures,” Khaja said.

During the procedure, the patient is under anesthesia. The physician runs a scope through an artery in the groin, all the way up to the heart, where the equipment is attached.

“We’re seeing patients on the same day. We’re putting catheters in the heart. And patients are on the way home in 90 minutes,” Khaja said.

Medications and procedures like thermal ablation, which applies heat or cold temperatures to the muscle tissue, have been used for decades and continue to be used. but there are undesirable side effects.

“What was happening is when you heat up the tissue, you also have adjacent structure, nerves like the esophagus, the food pipe, they can get affected. And that was always a complication,” Khaja said.

Pulsed-field ablation has been proven to be much more effective.

“It’s much better than medication because the medication has significant side effects all the time. And the ablation success rate is much higher based on multiple studies,” said cardiac electrophysiologist Dr. Nghia Hoang.

“You take a very safe procedure and make it even safer,” Khaja said.

Not every patient is a candidate for pulsed-field ablation. Consult with your doctor to see if you qualify. Doctors said smartwatches are a good way to monitor your heart and detect AFib.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to mypanhandle.com.