Atrial Fibrillation

Some types of arrhythmias, such as paroxysmal tachycardia or atrial flutter, are definitively resolved with radiofrequency ablation. This procedure represents a great advance in the treatment of arrhythmias, since it resolves more than 90% of cases. Only in less than 5% of patients do they reappear.

After an electrophysiological study, by introducing an electrocatheter into the cardiac cavities, the focus of myocardial tissue causing the arrhythmia is destroyed. It is a very safe, relatively simple and fast procedure.

The Clínica Universidad de Navarra is the first Spanish hospital and one of the first in the world to use the pulsed field ablation technique for the treatment of atrial fibrillation, one of the most frequent cardiac arrhythmias. This new procedure treats cardiac cells by means of electric fields, which allows for greater precision and safety in ablation procedures, which are carried out more quickly and comfortably for the patient.

It definitively eliminates a large number of arrhythmias that would otherwise be difficult to treat or would require lifelong drug treatment.

Cryoablation is an advanced technique for treating non-persistent (paroxysmal) atrial fibrillation. The greatest benefit of this technique is that the treatment is performed by freezing, in a single energy impact, and in a faster and more effective way.

The procedure has already been successfully performed by our experts on numerous occasions. Until now, the conventional method applied point-to-point radiofrequency impacts throughout the perimeter of the pulmonary veins, where the arrhythmia originates.

The application of the cold is achieved by introducing, by means of a catheter, a balloon filled with nitrous oxide (a chemical compound used as a source of cold) that reaches the intersection of the pulmonary veins with the left atrium in order to isolate and prevent the propagation of the anomalous electrical impulse.

Pacemakers are small electronic devices capable of analyzing the heart's rhythm and treating arrhythmias by means of electrical stimuli. Their function is to supply the functions of the cardiac excitation and conduction system. They are generally implanted under local anesthesia during almost the entire procedure.

Recovery from the procedure is rapid and allows discharge from the hospital in two or three days. When the batteries run out, approximately every six years, it is necessary to replace the pacemaker.

The Clinic has a system for remote control of pacemakers that sends daily information about the technical data of the devices from the patients' homes. In this way, the disease is better controlled.

The program monitors the functioning of the devices implanted in the patients and transmits the technical data to the cardiologists via cell phone on a daily basis.

In some patients with severe, potentially lethal arrhythmias, it is necessary to implant an implantable automatic defibrillator, which restores normal heart rhythm by automatically applying electrical shocks.

The defibrillator controls the heart rhythm permanently. When it detects an arrhythmia, it uses different treatments by means of electrical impulses to suppress it.

Depending on the severity of the arrhythmia, the defibrillator automatically applies softer treatments (antitachycardia stimulation) or more radical ones (cardioversion by electric shock), which can occasionally be perceived by the carrier. Sometimes the defibrillator is associated with cardiac resynchronization therapy, thus improving the insufficiency that sometimes the patient also suffers.

The Clinic has a system for remote control of defibrillators that sends daily information from the patient's home.

In the Clinic we perform the technique called HeartPort. With this procedure, access to the heart is achieved through small lateral incisions instead of performing a sternotomy (opening of the chest through the sternum). This allows a quick recovery and avoids less aesthetic scars.

In addition, we have the resources and experience necessary to perform atrial fibrillation surgery without the use of the heart-lung machine, with the consequent reduction in operating time and surgical complications.

Atrial fibrillation surgery emerged almost twenty years ago to restore sinus rhythm in patients undergoing surgery for some cardiac pathology (mitral valve disease, coronary disease, etc.).

The technique, called "labyrinth" because of its complexity, performed various lines of scars with scalpel and sutures, distributed through the atria. A unique path is created by which the electrical impulse flows from the sinus node to the atrial-ventricular node, avoiding the electrical stimuli that cause AF.