Atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation surgery is a surgical procedure aimed at eliminating the source of the cardiac arrhythmia through the selective destruction of small portions of the cardiac tissue present in the walls of the heart’s upper chambers (atria), from which the electrical stimuli at the origin of the abnormal contraction waves and, therefore, the disordered heart rhythm, depart.
The procedure, which can be performed by various modalities, can be offered to patients affected by all three types of atrial fibrillation (paroxysmal, persistent, and permanent), but it is rarely the first treatment approach for this arrhythmia, which in most cases can be kept under control with medical therapy based on antiarrhythmic drugs and possibly by performing electrical cardioversion.
