Treatment Overview
Catheter ablation is a minimally invasive procedure to treat atrial fibrillation. It can relieve symptoms and improve quality of life.
During a catheter ablation, the doctor destroys tiny areas in the heart that are firing off abnormal electrical impulses and causing atrial fibrillation.
You will be given medicine to help you relax. A local anesthetic will numb the site where the catheter is inserted. Sometimes, general anesthesia is used. The procedure is done in a hospital where you can be watched carefully.
Thin, flexible tubes called catheters are inserted into a vein, typically in the groin or neck, and threaded up into the heart. There is an electrode at the tip of each catheter. The electrode sends out radio waves that create heat. This heat destroys the heart tissue that causes atrial fibrillation or the heart tissue that keeps it happening. Another option is to use freezing cold to destroy the heart tissue.
Sometimes, abnormal impulses come from inside a pulmonary vein and cause atrial fibrillation. (The pulmonary veins bring blood back from the lungs to the heart.) Catheter ablation in a pulmonary vein can block these impulses and keep atrial fibrillation from happening.
AV node ablation
AV node ablation is a slightly different type of ablation procedure for atrial fibrillation. AV node ablation can control symptoms of atrial fibrillation in some people. With AV node ablation, the entire atrioventricular (AV) node is destroyed. After the AV node is destroyed, it can no longer send impulses to the lower chambers of the heart (ventricles). This controls atrial fibrillation symptoms.
After AV node ablation, a permanent pacemaker is needed to regulate your heart rhythm. Nodal ablation can control your heart rate and reduce your symptoms, but it does not prevent or cure atrial fibrillation.
