An Atrial Flutter AblationĪn atrial flutter ablation will generally take around 1 hour and patients can either be given ‘twilight sedation’ to keep them comfortable or a general anaesthetic. Some patients may have both atrial flutter and a related rhythm called atrial fibrillation (AF) at different times (see the section on 'Atrial Fibrillation'). This is because the success rates with atrial flutter ablation are ≥95% with a single procedure (substantially more effective than medications). In patients with symptoms from atrial flutter an ablation procedure is considered first line treatment. For this reason an anticoagulant or ‘blood thinner’ is often recommended to reduce the risk of blood clots and stroke. In atrial flutter the top chambers of the heart beat so quickly that they do not effectively pump blood and blood clots can develop. Symptoms and TreatmentĪtrial flutter may cause a persons heart rate to be increased (tachycardia) and can lead to symptoms such as palpitations (the sometimes unpleasant awareness of a persons heart beat), shortness of breath, dizziness, chest pain or sometimes lethargy.

This causes the atria (the hearts upper chambers) to beat at around 300 beats per minute and commonly every second impulse travels down to the ventricles to cause a heart rate of 150 beats per minute (medications may be used to slow these heart rates down).

Atrial flutter is a short circuit where electrical activity travels in a continuous loop around the tricuspid valve/annulus on the right hand side of the heart.

Atrial flutter causes