AfibTreatment Today - Permanent Atrial Fibrillation

The last stage of atrial fibrillation is referred to as permanent atrial fibrillation or longstanding atrial fibrillation. The old term was chronic atrial fibrillation but today permanent atrial fibrillation is described as atrial fibrillation that continues despite most therapeutic options to treat it.

Permanent Afib is now usually called longstanding Persistent Atrial Fibrillation. The previous stages of Paroxysmal and Persistent Atrial Fibrillation when they occur more frequently eventually become Longstanding Persistent Atrial Fibrillation.

The term Permanent atrial fibrillation has fallen out of favor now because with the advancements constantly being made in the treatment of afib. It is now thought that most, if not all, atrial fibrillation can be controlled or cured.

Before the recent advances in Electrophysiology, the treatment of the heart's electrical system, if somebody had say an electrical cardioversion of their heart to attempt to convert them from atrial fibrillation into normal sinus rhythm and failed that, and stayed in atrial fibrillation, that would be considered a failure of that therapy to convert the patient, and the patient would be in the category of permanent atrial fibrillation.

Today with the advent of cardioversion, antiarrythmic drug therapy, cardiac catheter ablations, and ablation surgeries like the Cox-Maze procedure, almost no atrial fibrillation is considered permanent.

This being said afib is not usually self limiting, meaning "afib begets afib" and most atrial fibrillation will progress unless the underlying causes are treated. The encouraging idea here is afib CAN be controlled or cured in almost every case, it only requires the determination of the patient to seek the cure...

This is the type if afib I had and I went through treatments from medicine to cardioversion to more medicine and finally to catheter ablation to cure my afib. It was a long, hard and harrowing process with no guarantee but I prevailed with God's help. You can too.

"NEVER Give Up!"

Stingram