title: Electrical cardioversion of atrial fibrillation: different methods for a safe and effective technique.
abstract: Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia observed in clinical practice. Many different therapeutic approaches are available at present but none may be considered the gold standard treatment. Antiarrhythmic drugs are not very effective agents to cardiovert persistent atrial fibrillation and, therefore, the technique most frequently used to restore sinus rhythm is external direct current cardioversion, which has proved to be safe and very effective. Esophageal cardioversion is an alternative method that could obviate some of the limitations of the external technique, such as the high energy required, need for anesthesia and longer hospital stay. Another technique performed during the last two decades is internal cardioversion, but at present, the advantage of this technique is limited to the small proportion of cases of unsuccessful external cardioversion.
authors.affiliation: University Hospital of Tor Vergata, Cardiology Department, Rome, Italy. lusanca@tiscali.it
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Santini
authors.forename: Giovanni Battista
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Forleo
authors.forename: Alessia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Topa
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Romeo
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Santini
mesh_terms: D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000628:therapy*; D004554:Electric Countershock / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D012449:Safety