Roberta Vischi was in her late thirties when she first experienced problems with atrial fibrillation (afib). Luckily, her afib abated until she was in her early forties which allowed her to carry her second child to term without any problems.

 

When her afib returned, Roberta was successfully medicated for fifteen years. Then, her medication stopped working and she was regularly in and out of atrial fibrillation. Because of this, Roberta was placed on anticoagulation medication to prevent a clot from forming and causing a stroke.

 

Unfortunately, the anticoagulation medication caused internal bleeding in Roberta, so she was no longer able to take it. Because the risk of stroke increased without being on blood thinning medication, Roberta underwent a catheter ablation to fix her arrhythmia, but after eight months, her atrial fibrillation returned.

 

It was then that Roberta and her family began investigating surgical options. Roberta’s cardiologist, Dr. Jerzy Wrobel, recommended Dr. Niv Ad for the maze procedure. Dr. Ad had recently joined the practice and was performing the minimally invasive full Maze procedure for atrial fibrillation at the Inova Heart and Vascular Surgery.

 

Roberta had surgery in May of 2006 and is now in normal sinus rhythm and able to do all of the things she did before atrial fibrillation affected her, including walk several miles a day!