Atrial Fibrillation Ablation by means of Second Generation Cryoballoon Ablation Clinical Efficacy, Electrophysiological Strategies and Outcomes.

Abstract

The cryoballoon technology is a safe and highly effective electrophysiological tool in achieving acute pulmonary vein isolation and represents a competitive alternative to radiofrequency energy for the treatment of AF. The introduction of a cryoballoon to isolate the pulmonary veins in patients with paroxysmal AF was considered a breakthrough technology because this would theoretically allow pulmonary vein isolation with a single application. Over the time the evolution of CB technology brought significant improvements in terms of efficacy and safety profile.
A promising future rises in the cryoablation research area and nowadays stands as a powerful electrophysiological tool for the treatment of AF. Cryoablation as first-line treatment strategy for AF and the efficacy of this technique for the treatment of PersAF or longstanding persistent AF are fascinating topics which are profoundly interesting for the world wide electrophysiology community and should be further investigated

Date of Award	12 Sep 2018
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Supervisor	Gian Battista Chierchia (Promotor), Carlo De Asmundis (Promotor), Pedro Brugada (Promotor), Claudio Tondo (Jury), Andrea Sarkozy (Jury), Danny Schoors (Jury), Jan Poelaert (Jury), Kristin Jochmans (Jury) & Mark La Meir (Jury)