When functioning properly, your heart beats with a natural rhythm. An arrhythmia is a disorder that means something’s wrong with the heart rhythm. There are many kinds of heart rhythm disorders. Sometimes, the heart beats too fast or too slow. Other times, there may be an irregularity in the heartbeat.

Symptoms

Not all arrhythmias cause symptoms you can feel—you may feel nothing at all, or experience symptoms such as:

• Palpitations
• Rapid heartbeat
• Feeling that your heart skips beats
• Fainting
• Dizziness
• Lightheadedness
• Shortness of breath
• Discomfort in your chest
• Fatigue or weakness

Treatments available

• Remote monitoring. UR Medicine can remotely monitor your heart's activity while you go about your daily activities.
• Medication. For many patients, this may be all that’s needed to control a heart rhythm disorder.
• Pacemakers. These devices are used to treat bradycardia, or slow heartbeat, to help your body maintain a normal heart rate.
• Atrial fibrillation ablation. A thin catheter is threaded through a blood vessel in the thigh and up to the heart. The abnormal areas of the heart are detected, and then high-frequency electrical energy is used to block abnormal electrical activity in the heart. After ablation, many patients never experience arrhythmia symptoms again.
• Implantable cardiac defibrillators. Certain heart rhythm disorders put patients at risk of their hearts suddenly stopping. An implantable defibrillator can reset the heart's rhythm should this happen.
• Ventricular tachycardia (VT) ablation. A fast heartbeat that can’t be managed with medication can often be helped through VT ablation. A catheter is inserted into a blood vessel in the thigh and directed up to the heart, a wire is used to map out abnormal areas of electrical activity in the heart, and then energy charges are delivered to the faulty area of the heart to inactivate the abnormal tissue.

A seasoned team of experts who’ve led their field

UR Medicine Cardiac Care is a world leader in heart rhythm disorders. Doctors here lead research that has changed the way arrhythmias are treated around the world. Other medical centers use our guidelines when deciding which patients need treatment for serious cardiac rhythm problems. We offer the most advanced and effective treatments for heart rhythm disorders and perform more of them than any other hospital in the Rochester area. In many cases, the treatments we provide are unavailable elsewhere in the region.

We have three fully equipped labs for ablation and device implants. These labs are staffed by nurses and technicians who work exclusively on heart rhythm disorders. Our newest lab provides robotic navigation for radiofrequency ablation, giving our patients even greater precision, safety and versatility.

Find out more

If you have symptoms of an arrhythmia or believe you may have a heart rhythm disorder, call us at (585) 275-4775.