Are there different types of “Pulmonary Vein Ablation”? Are they different than “Pulmonary Vein Isolation?
Pulmonary Vein Ablation of A-Fib is a relatively new procedure whose techniques and language are evolving. What follows is perhaps an oversimplified, somewhat biased attempt at explaining the catheter ablation procedures in use today from a patients perspective. (Pulmonary Vein Ablation differs from other types of Catheter Ablation used in treating A-Fib, such as Ablation of the AV Node.) FOCAL CATHETER ABLATION or FOCAL POINT CATHETER ABLATION In this early procedure doctors mapped the sources of ectopic beats (beats that come from any region of the heart that ordinarily should not produce heart beat signals), then used a Radiofrequency (RF) catheter to ablate or burn off areas or points within the heart producing these ectopic beats. But if you werent in A-Fib at the time, it was difficult to identify the Focal Points or areas of the heart producing ectopic beats. SEGMENTAL ABLATION Doctors discovered that when a patient was not in A-Fib, the Focal Points producing A-Fib signals coul
