Atrial fibrillation (AFib), an irregular heart rhythm, can leave you feeling unnerved and exhausted. Symptoms may include fluttering in your chest, skipped heartbeats, sweating and chest pain.
One cause of AFib may be valvular heart disease, treated with procedures such as cardiac ablation, cardiac implantable devices and cardioversion. But if a heart valve problem isn’t the cause, you have a condition called non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF).
If you have NVAF, your doctor may recommend a Watchman implant. Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2015 for patients at high risk for bleeding, this device and procedure reduce stroke risk from AFib as effectively as warfarin (Coumadin), without warfarin’s long-term risk of bleeding.
