Catheter Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation: A Review of the Current Status and Future Directions

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most common arrhythmias encountered in clinical practice today. Over the last 20 years, the frequency of use of catheter ablation to treat AF has grown, commensurate with the rise in arrhythmia burden and via a number of technical advancements. These developments can be divided into new techniques for myocardial ablation, improvements in the understanding of AF trigger mechanisms, and advancements in atrial mapping. Progress in these fields has led to a fundamental change in daily practice, and has contributed to a rise, for ablation, from a procedure performed infrequently at select centers to one that is commonplace worldwide. In this article, the data and methods leading to this fundamental change will be presented and discussed.