TREATMENTS
For individuals who experience occasional PVCs with no other symptoms and no underlying heart disease or structural problems, no treatment is necessary. You can help control your PVCs by reducing or eliminating your caffeine, tobacco and alcohol intake and reducing stress and anxiety. If medication you take routinely is causing your PVCs, discuss a possible change in medication with your physician. When PVCs are due to some form or heart disease or structural abnormality, treating that problem often causes the PVCs to go away.
A beta blocker medication may be prescribed for patients with PVCs who have heart failure or who have had a heart attack. Beta blockers are safe and effective drugs that are often used to treat heart arrhythmias. Other drugs that may be used to treat frequent PVCs include calcium channel blockers and other more potent heart rhythm medications.
Ablation is another treatment option for some patients with frequent or prolonged PVCs. In ablation therapy, radiofrequency waves are used to vaporize tiny amounts of tissue in the area of the heart where the extra beat originates. This is a minimally invasive procedure that is reserved for patients who cannot tolerate beat blockers, in whom medication is ineffective or who cannot comply with long-term drug therapy. Cleveland Clinic interventional cardiologists are experts in radiofrequency ablation, performing more than 1200 ablations annually to treat a variety of arrhythmias.
For patients with heart disease who have frequent PVCs or increased PVCs during exercise, angioplasty or bypass surgery may be appropriate.
Who is at risk for PVCs?
Almost everyone has PVCs at some time, from childhood through adulthood. In a study of healthy members of the military, the incidence of PVCs was 0.5% among those under the age of 20 and 2.2% in those over the age of 50. This study shows the rise in PVCs – as in all types of abnormal heart rhythms – that occurs with age. PVCs occur more commonly in older people and in individuals with underlying heart disease, including a history of heart attack. People with a family history of cardiac arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythm) also have a higher risk for PVCs.
What are the risks associated with PVCs?
Most PVCs occur infrequently and are benign. Frequent PVCs may increase the risk of developing other, more serious cardiac arrhythmias. Individuals with frequent PVCs who have underlying heart disease, structural abnormalities in the heart or have had a previous heart attack have a higher risk of death.