Present Role and Future Perspectives of Radiofrequency Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation

Transcatheter ablation of atrial fibrillation has been recently developed and is part now of the armamentarium in the treatment of atrial fibrillation. The ablation of atrial fibrillation started out from the experience of the surgical maze procedure, which showed very encouraging results but at a high price because it required open chest surgery. In the following years the attempt has been made to produce similar results using transcatheter ablation. Different approaches have been used: linear lesions mimicking the surgical maze operation, linear lesions in the right or left atrium using different schemes, or a sequential approach ablating first in the right and then in the left atrium.