Not all atrial fibrillation patients are candidates for an ablation, either catheter ablation or surgical ablation, such as the maze or mini maze procedures. Thus their stroke risk remains high. We recently wrote about the FDA’s approval of the AtriClip device, which is implanted during open heart surgery and reduces stroke risk by occluding (closing [...]
Device Offers Alternative to Warfarin or Coumadin in Preventing Strokes From Atrial Fibrillation
There is a lot of news coming out of the American College of Cardiology annual meetings going on currently in Orlando. One such story, about the Watchman device trial, is particularly important to those with afib who are concerned about blood clots and stroke. Read more at: Watchman Device as Alternative to Warfarin or Coumadin
Does Left Atrial Appendage Removal Prevent Strokes?
A recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology evaluated 137 patients who had undergone closure or removal of the left atrial appendage (LAA) during maze or mini maze surgery and found a high failure rate and that surgical LAA closure may not always protect against blood clots or strokes. Read more [...]
AV Node Ablation: Why You Shouldn’t Have It
One topic, AV node ablation, makes the rounds of the atrial fibrillation discussion groups on a regular basis, and has just come back around again. All at about the same time, several afib patients’ doctors have insisted that they have an AV node ablation with a pacemaker implant. Thus they have come seeking others’ experiences. [...]
Atrial Fibrillation and Clueless Doctors
I’m mad and must post this before I explode. Today alone I’ve answered a dozen e-mails or comments from folks suffering with atrial fibrillation around the same theme—their clueless doctors! Now don’t get me wrong, there are so many good doctors out there. And the doctors to those folks who e-mailed me are probably very [...]
