Ablation of Paroxysmal and Persistent Atrial Fibrillation

Introduction Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia in humans. Its maintenance is thought to be due to multiple wavelets reentry occurring in both atria [1]. Previous studies have demonstrated the feasibility and efficacy of cryoablation to create lesions in both atria [2] and on the posterior wall of the left atrium [3], connecting the four pulmonary veins and the mitral annulus [4], in patients with chronic AF undergoing valvular heart surgery, as a valid alternative to the Maze procedure. Recently, the pulmonary veins (PVs) have been demonstrated to often play an important role in generating atrial fibrillation [5-7]. Because of their critical role in AF, a variety of surgical and catheter ablation techniques has been used to isolate the PVs from the left atrium [8-10].