Catheter Ablation Treatment for Atrial Fibrillation

An experienced cardiologist, Sanjiv M. Narayan, MD, PhD, was the director of electrophysiology at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Diego for 13 years. He now serves as a professor of medicine at Stanford University. Dr. Sanjiv Narayan supports Stop Afib, a nonprofit organization that aims to provide patients with advice on treatment of atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat often accompanied by a racing of the heart.

One treatment for atrial fibrillation is catheter ablation. Catheter ablation is typically performed by cardiologists specializing in electrophysiology, and involves a minimally invasive surgical procedure. It is commonly used to treat paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, but can be used for more diverse and advanced types of atrial fibrillation. The procedure is done on a beating heart as a closed-chest procedure. The surgeon makes a small incision in the arm, groin, or neck and leads the catheter through this opening into the heart.

The catheter is then threaded from the right to the left atrium through an incision. The catheter then uses radiofrequency energy to remove (ablate) tissue around the pulmonary veins and other critical regions. This controls the irregular heartbeats by blocking the electrical signals that cause it.