Charles H. Machell, MD, FACC is Board Certified in Cardiology and Cardiology. He practices with South Texas Cardiovascular Consultants.
Dr. Machell admits there wasn't a lot going on in EP when he first became interested in the field. In the late 1980s, he witnessed one of the first catheter ablations which took nearly 20 hours to perform. Since then, Dr. Machell has performed more than 9,000 ablations himself, including about 1,000 pediatric procedures. (And, today, ablations take only a couple hours to complete!)
Over the years, Dr. Machell has seen tremendous advances in the treatment of abnormal heart rhythms. He is particularly interested in the use of remote magnetic navigation in catheter ablations for complex heart arrhythmias. Not all patients with abnormal heart rhythms can be treated with catheter ablation, however. For them, implanted devices, such as pacemakers and defibrillators, are often necessary. Pacemakers assist those with slow heart rates, while defibrillators are common for patients who have suffered a previous cardiac arrest. Just as paddles are applied to the outside of the chest during a cardiac arrest to deliver an electrical shock meant to restore the beating of the stopped heart, implanted defibrillators detect when a patient’s heart has stopped and deliver an immediate electrical shock.
In practice since 1986 Dr. Machell investigated new types of pacemakers and helped evaluate catheter ablation. He has written numerous publications on a variety of electrophysiology topics. Dr. Machell also performs left atrial appendage occlusion with the Watchman device which is indicated to prevent stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation who need an alternative to warfarin.
Dr. Machell sees patients at South Texas Cardiovascular Consultants’ offices in San Antonio and Kerrville as well as at Methodist Hospital | Texsan.