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Professor Fu Siong Ng
Imperial College Healthcare Private Care - Cardiology
What is external cardioversion and why is it used?
Professor Fu Siong Ng, Professor of cardiology, consultant cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist, explains external cardioversion for abnormal heart rhythms in this video, covering how the treatment resets rhythm, when it is used and why it may be recommended for atrial fibrillation.
Transcript
So if you have an abnormal heart rhythm or an irregular heart rhythm, for example atrial fibrillation, it might be recommended that you have something called external cardioversion.
This is a treatment to reset someone's abnormal heart rhythm to get them back to a normal heart rhythm so that they feel better.
It's a very simple, common procedure that is done under a very brief general anaesthetic.
So the patient is put to sleep for a few minutes and using two pads that we place on the chest of the patient, we deliver a single controlled electric shock to the heart that essentially resets the heart rhythm and puts them back into a nice regular heart rhythm.