Your treatment will depend on the cause of your atrial flutter, as well as your symptoms, other health risks and personal preferences.
Providers often suggest that patients being treated for atrial flutter adopt a heart-healthy lifestyle. These steps include:
- Eat a healthy diet. This includes eating fruits and veggies, lean meats, nuts, beans, fish and whole grains, while limiting sodium, added sugars and unhealthy fats.
- If you smoke, quit. Smoking can increase your risk for heart attack and stroke. Avoid vaping and secondhand smoke as well.
- Limit alcohol. Men should have no more than two drinks per day and women should aim for no more than one drink per day.
- Reach and maintain a healthy weight.
- Get seven to nine hours of quality sleep per night.
- Manage other health problems, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, by taking medicines properly and following your provider’s guidance.
- Stay physically active. Try to get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise most days of the week. Talk to your provider about what exercises are good for you. Be sure to watch for signs that your heart is working too hard; if you become short of breath or dizzy while exercising, stop and rest right away.
- Stay up to date on flu and COVID-19 vaccines to help avoid getting sick.
Medicines for atrial flutter can help control the pace of your heartbeat and reduce your risk for stroke.
- Beta blockers: These medicines block the effects of adrenaline on the heart, which slows the heart rate and lessens the force of heart contractions.
- Blood thinners: Atrial flutter, like other forms of arrhythmia, can increase your risk for blood clots that can lead to stroke. Like the name implies, blood thinners thin the blood and reduce the risk for clots.
- Calcium channel blockers: These medicines block calcium channels to the heart cells, which slows the heart rate and helps manage arrhythmias.
In this procedure, a thin, flexible tube called a catheter is inserted into a blood vessel and threaded to the heart. Electrodes inside the catheter allow your cardiologist to find the problem areas and destroy the abnormal tissue with radiofrequency energy.
Before electrical cardioversion, you’re given anesthesia to put you to sleep. During the procedure, your healthcare provider attaches electrodes to your chest or both your chest and back. Next, one or more brief electrical shocks are sent to your heart to restore a normal heart rhythm.
