Cardiologists in Mayo Clinic's Heart Rhythm Clinic are using a new innovative energy source to safely and successfully treat a common type of heart arrhythmia. The therapy, called pulsed field ablation (PFA), has received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval and represents a significant milestone in treating atrial fibrillation (AFib). The irregular and often very rapid heart rhythm of AFib can lead to blood clots in the heart, increasing a patient's risk of stroke.
Clinicians can use medication and therapies to help reset the heart rhythm, but some patients have AFib that persists and worsens. Ablation therapy has been used for about two decades to treat these patients, but pulsed field ablation uses a different approach. Instead of applying heat or cold energy as in traditional ablation, the PFA catheter therapy uses short bursts of high energy called irreversible electroporation to affect heart tissue that causes atrial fibrillation.
The PFA therapy successfully transitioned to patient care at Mayo Clinic in Rochester in February 2024. Mayo cardiac specialists have since used PFA to treat more than 200 patients for AFib. Limitations inspired development of new energy sources The traditional approaches using thermal energy sources to treat AFib -; radiofrequency, laser, cryo energy -; all carry an associated injury risk to nearby structures, the esophagus and the phrenic nerve.
" Suraj Kapa, M.D., cardiac electrophysiologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota PFA .