anyone know anything about A-Fib?

As long as her heart is effectively pumping people can live perfectly normal lives with a-fib. Usually they are put on blood thinners to prevent clotting from happening in the atrium so as long as the ventricles are being filled adequately and pumping at a decent pace there should be no immediate problems. If the ventricles are not pumping enough blood out to the rest of the body though then she may need a pacemaker. A pacemaker is not going to "fix" the problem of a-fib, but it will ensure that the heart is pumping effectively, and there are different types of pacemakers some that only kick in when the heart rate drops too low.

Cardioversion is another treatment that is used in cases of a-fib. It is the process of sedating the patient and shocking them to try to "restart" the heart and hopefully get it going again in a sinus rhythm.

I am sure that the doctor wouldn't have suggested anything he didn't think it was going to work, but if you are unsure you can always find another doctor to give you a second opinion. A lot of what a doctor does is based on successful treatments he has had in the past, but not every treatment works for everybody. This doctor may have had a lot of patients who converted with a pacemaker and that is why he is recommending it, but another doctor may have something else he wishes to try first. Good luck, I hope you find something that will work for your mom.

Atrial fibrillation is just an irregular heart beat. It depends on what the cause of it is. If its a problem with the sinus node then a pacemaker would most certainly help this to send the correct signals to the rest of the heart and would stop her heartbeat from being so irregular.

Also do you believe a dr would put in a pacemaker that wasnt going to make any difference to the problem in place?

Honestly they are not going to do surgery just because they fancy it!!

Chic

xx