I have atrial fibrillation and am considering whether or not to have cardioversion?

Cardioversion: The shorter the duration of atrial fibrillation the more effective cardioversion is at converting the rhythm. When underlying cardiac pathology like mitral insufficiency or stenosis is present, keeping the patient out of atrial fibrillation or converting the rhythm is quite problematic.The procedure is low risk for most people if they have been anticoagulated for several weeks beforehand as needed.

If you do...: Make sure that your provider is either keeping you on good anticoagulation for the 3 weeks before or performs a "tee" procedure at the time of cardioversion to minimize the stroke risk. The advantages of doing the cardioversion are that you'll know whether you feel better in sinus rhythm than you do with fib, and you'll know how easily you can hold normal (sinus) rhythm.