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Atrial Fibrillation cases rise in baby-boomer generation.

The Atrial Fibrillation Center at the University of Tennessee Medical Center is the only program of its kind in the region. Its purpose is to evaluate, manage and provide various treatment options for your patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). As baby boomers age, the AF population in the United States is expected to swell from approximately 2.3 million to 4.5 million by 2011. The Atrial Fibrillation Center, an initiative of the Heart Lung Vascular Institute, will work to meet the growing needs of the region’s AF patients by providing the most innovative treatment options and proven therapies that will produce the best outcome for your AF patient.

One if the goals of the Atrial Fibrillation Center is to make patient referral convenient for the referring physician. We have a call center with a dedicated staff to screen and process referrals for first time patients. Upon acceptance into the center, patients will be evaluated by a general cardiologist, cardiac electrophysiologist or cardiothoracic surgeon to determine the most appropriate course of treatment.

Patient monitoring and follow up is also an important feature of our program. We utilize a clinical coordinator to track patient outcomes and ensure that post procedure monitoring is obtained per Heart Rhythm Society guidelines. Our staff is dedicated to working with referring physicians in order to keep you informed of your patient’s progress through the Atrial Fibrillation Center and to ensure that appropriate follow up management is communicated.

Treatment Options include:

Medical Management
• Comprehensive medical evaluation
• Anti-arrhythmia drug management
• Rate-control drug management
• Anticoagulation drug management

Intervention
• Electrophysiologic testing
• Pacemakers
• AV Node ablation
• Focal and accessory pathway ablation
• Catheter ablation for pulmonary vein isolation
• Intracardiac echocardiography
• 3D mapping

Atrial Fibrillation surgery
• Concomitant Maze procedures - With Mitral valve repair or replacement, Aortic valve procedures, Coronary bypass or other cardiac operations
• Standard Cox Maze IV operation
• Minimally invasive Maze procedure
• Parasympathetic ganglia mapping and ablation
• Removal of left atrial appendage for stroke reduction