Electrophysiology/Arrhythmias

Electrophysiology is the medical subspecialty that focuses on understanding, diagnosing, and treating heart rhythm problems or arrhythmias by studying the heart’s electrical activity and pathways. Equipped with the latest state-of-the-art technology for electrophysiologic diagnosis and care, this sophisticated equipment enables our electrophysiologists to offer the full range of non-invasive evaluation and therapeutic services to patients with arrhythmias including atrial fibrillation, tachycardia, atrial flutter and congenital heart rhythm problems. Our team offers the following:

  • Non-invasive arrhythmia evaluation
  • Pacemaker/ICD, including complex extraction procedures
  • Electrophysiologic studies
  • Catheter ablation
  • Treatment of refractory arrhythmias that have failed traditional therapies, including novel approaches such as pericardial ablation for refractory ventricular tachycardia

Working closely with our team of thoracic cardiovascular surgeons, we also offer advanced arrhythmia surgeries such as the minimally invasive procedures to treat atrial fibrillation or ventricular tachyarrhythmias.

A Full Spectrum of Care

UF cardiologists and surgeons collaborate to offer the full spectrum of care for patients with atrial fibrillation

University of Florida cardiovascular surgeons and cardiologists are collaborating to provide complete care for patients. Treatments range from medicine to surgery and each patient’s treatment plan is tailored specifically to what is the best for them. Therapies include:

  • Medications to restore a normal rhythm
  • Novel blood thinning medications to prevent stroke
  • Cardioversion to shock the heart back into normal rhythm
  • Catheter-based ablation interventions to eliminate the trigger points on the heart, which enable abnormal rhythms, including cryoballoon therapy
  • The “Mini-Maze” operation and other minimally invasive pulmonary vein isolation procedures
  • Traditional open “Maze” surgery for atrial fibrillation patients who are refractory to the above therapies

Hybrid Approach

Committed to offering the latest in care, UF physicians now offer a hybrid approach to treating patients in persistent atrial fibrillation. The procedure combines catheter-based ablation, which interrupts atrial fibrillations on the inside of the heart and minimally invasive surgical procedures, which ablates the outside of the heart, into one single operation designed to more effectively prevent the abnormal electrical signals which cause atrial fibrillation.