If your pet needs synchronized electrical cardioversion, you may have questions about what it is and how you can prepare your pet. Today, the Boulder vets will explain how to prepare your pet for synchronized electrical cardioversion.
What Is Synchronized Electrical Cardioversion?
Synchronized electrical cardioversion is a tool used to restore normal heartbeat rhythm in canine patients with arrhythmias. The most common arrhythmias treated with cardioversion are atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter.
Cardioversion is proven to be a safe and effective technique in these patients, who often have significant underlying heart disease. Cardioversion is performed under general anesthesia and can be accomplished on an outpatient basis. After the induction of anesthesia, we use the cardioverter to send a biphasic electrical current to the heart and this serves to reorganize the electrical activity in the cardiac atria.
The restoration of a normal heartbeat rhythm can lead to a better quality of life and improved exercise tolerance in these patients.
When a dog has recently been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and hypothyroidism and it will start on thyroid supplementation and cardiac medications.
ECG on presentation confirmed atrial fibrillation. Echocardiography showed normal chamber dimensions, making heart failure unlikely. With the lack of structural heart disease, a diagnosis of lone atrial fibrillation was made.
After initial medical management of the atrial fibrillation with rate control, the client elected electrical cardioversion. Your dog will be pretreated with amiodarone and transthoracic electrical cardioversion was performed. Atrial fibrillation was successfully converted to normal sinus rhythm, and your dog was discharged on a maintenance dose of amiodarone.