Cardioversion is a procedure that may be offered to you when you experience an abnormally fast heartbeat that makes you feel tired and unwell. Conditions such as atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter are a couple of the reasons why you may have been referred to Kingston Health Sciences Centre's Kingston General Hospital (KGH) site to have a cardioversion procedure. In some cases, your heartbeat can be slowed down or controlled with medication, but in certain cases, a low-frequency electrical current may be required.
There are two different ways you could undergo this procedure, they are:
Inpatient
- While in the hospital, a doctor will assess you in preparation for your procedure.
- You may have an electrocardiogram (ECG) exam and/or bloodwork done before your procedure begins.
- You will not be able to eat or drink anything beginning at midnight the night before your procedure.
- You may drink a sip of water to take your regular medications before your procedure.
- We will bring you to a monitored area in either the Cardiac Sciences Unit or the Cardiovascular (CV) lab and an intravenous (IV) line will be started if you do not already have one.
- A member of your health-care team will attach two sticky pads to your chest.
- We will also hook you up to a cardiac monitor, blood pressure cuff and oxygen probe.
- An anaesthetist will give you some medicine through your IV to make you sleepy for the procedure. You will likely not remember the procedure taking place.
- Once the procedure is complete, you will be monitored in a recovery area and once you have recovered, you can return to your regular hospital room.
Outpatient
- An appointment will be booked for you by the cardiac care office.
- You will not be able to have anything to eat or drink beginning at midnight the night before your procedure. You can drink a sip of water when you take your morning pills before you arrive at the hospital.
- You will need to arrange for a ride home from the hospital after your procedure is complete. It is also recommended that you not drive for 24 hours after your procedure.
- If you wear a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine to sleep, please bring it with you to the KGH site.
- On the day of your appointment, arrive at the KGH site and go to our Armstrong wing to register for your procedure.
- We will perform an ECG exam and possibly blood work upon your arrival.
- You will then be taken to the CV lab on the third floor.
- The procedure will take about one to two hours including recovery time.
- Those who wear a CPAP machine to sleep should expect to have a four-hour recovery time.
- Once inside the CV lab, you will have an IV started and two sticky pads will be placed on your chest. You will also be hooked up to a cardiac monitor, blood pressure cuff and oxygen probe.
- An anaesthetist will give you some medicine through your IV to make you sleepy for the procedure.
- Once the procedure is completed, you will be monitored in a recovery area.
- When you are ready to go home, you will be given discharge instructions and your ride home will be called to pick you up.
