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Professor Fu Siong Ng
Imperial College Healthcare Private Care - Cardiology
Is external cardioversion safe?
Professor Fu Siong Ng, Professor of cardiology, consultant cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist, explains external cardioversion safety in this video, covering procedure safety, blood clot risk, anticoagulation and how risks are reduced before treatment. This offers practical, patient-friendly guidance for those considering private care.
Transcript
External cardioversion is one of the safest procedures that we do in cardiology.
It's a very brief, simple procedure, but every procedure has a very small risk.
The risks with a cardioversion primarily relate to blood clots and blood clots going to other parts of the body.
We normally quote a one in 1,000 chance of things like strokes or other conditions that involve blood clots going from the heart to other parts of the body.
To mitigate and to reduce the risk, we make sure the patient is taking a blood thinner for several weeks leading up to the procedure, and we make sure they do not miss any doses of the medication after the procedure that will minimize the risk of these complications as part of the cardioversion.