What is Cardiac Electrophysiology?

Not every heart beats at the right pace. “The vast majority of patients are going to recognize that something's not right. They may not be able to put their finger on that there's some type of arrhythmia, but they just know that they're not feeling normal,” said Electrophysiologist Dr. Erick Burton.

Patients should address those concerns with their primary care physician. They may then refer them to a cardiologist. If the cardiologist believes an irregular heartbeat or arrhythmia is the primary concern, they’ll refer the patient to an electrophysiologist. “Cardiac electrophysiology is specialized in the area of diagnosis and treatment of these type of arrhythmias.”

There are multiple types of arrhythmias. While some can be controlled with medications and lifestyle modifications, “Some arrhythmias can require interventions where we have to go in and try to eliminate the arrhythmia through various procedures such as a catheter ablation procedure, or sometimes people with heart rates that are too slow, they might need to have a pacemaker,” said Dr. Burton. “That's part of what an electrophysiologist really evaluates is the appropriate therapy for an individual's symptoms because obviously with somebody with a life-threatening problem, we want to be very aggressive in protecting that patient, whereas somebody who's not having a life-threatening problem, there are a little bit more options that are not quite as austere or severe.”

Lee Health in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of health care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For more than 100 years, we’ve been providing our community with personalized preventative health services and primary care to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.