AFib Treatment Gets a Tech Upgrade

A new technology for treating atrial fibrillation received FDA approval in January 2024 called Pulsed Field Ablation, or FARAPULSE.  We are happy to share that our cardiac electrophysiologists, Dr. Nghia Hoang and Dr. Saeed Khaja, performed the first FARAPULSE procedures in our area in June at Ascension Sacred Heart Bay.

Atrial Fibrillation, or AFib, is the most common heart arrythmia.  When it can’t be managed with medication or lifestyle changes, an ablation procedure is the gold standard of treatment.  A traditional procedure uses a catheter guided into the heart that generates thermal energy, extreme heat or cold, to ablate the small area of heart tissue that triggers the arrythmia. 

Pulsed Field Ablation is also a guided catheter procedure using non-thermal electric fields, which are tissue selective, so the risk of causing damage to surrounding tissue is significantly reduced.  “It makes a safe procedure, even safer,” says Dr. Hoang.

In clinical trials that included more than 17,000 patients, FARAPULSE ablations were found to be safe and as effective as traditional procedures, but required less ablation time and had no reports of injury to the surrounding tissue.

This is a welcome technology upgrade in treating our patients with atrial fibrillation.

Please click here to view/read local media coverage. https://www.mypanhandle.com/news/local-news/bay-county/new-treatment-for-afib-being-offered-at-ascension-sacred-heart/