An electric shock to the heart (electrical cardioversion) may be necessary if you are having severe symptoms of supraventricular tachycardia and your heart rate does not return to normal using vagal maneuvers or fast-acting medicines.

If you continue to have episodes that cause serious symptoms, a procedure called catheter ablation may be done during an electrophysiology (EP) study. During an EP study, the extra electrical pathway or cells in the heart that are causing the fast heart rate can often be identified and destroyed using catheter ablation.

Other Treatment Choices

Electrical cardioversion

Catheter ablation

What to think about

Electrical cardioversion is only used in an emergency. If you are awake, medicines will be used to control pain and make you sleepy during the procedure.

Catheter ablation is low-risk and effective for people with severely symptomatic supraventricular tachycardia due to AV nodal reentrant tachycardia or a concealed bypass tract. It can also reduce medical costs when compared with commonly used drug therapies.

This procedure has risks, but they are rare. You must balance your feelings about taking medicine for the rest of your life with having an invasive procedure.