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Updated: Sep 5, 2025
Robotic Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation
Published on: May 29, 2015
Effectiveness of a manual dragging laser irradiation technique using the first-generation endoscopic laser balloon
Yasuhiro Sasaki1, Atsushi Kobori1, Masahiro Ishikura1
1Department of Cardiology Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital Kobe Japan.
Background:
Although high efficacy of laser balloon (LB) ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF) has been shown, the conventional point-by-point technique requires a long procedure time. We investigated the clinical effectiveness of the manual dragging laser technique.
Methods:
We enrolled 51 consecutive patients with paroxysmal AF who underwent pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) using first-generation LB (LB1) at our institution. The first 25 patients underwent PVI using a point-by-point laser irradiation maneuver (point-by-point group). The latter 26 patients underwent PVI using a manually dragging laser irradiation maneuver (dragging group). The power and delivery time for the laser energy were selected from a preset protocol with 5.5-12 W and 20-30 s for each application. The dragging irradiation method was performed by manually rotating approximately 1.5°/s during one irradiation application.
Results:
PVI was successful in all cases. The duration of PVI was shorter (66 ± 20 vs. 116 ± 39 min, p < 0.0001), and the number of laser irradiations for the 4PVs were significantly less in the dragging group. There were four recurrent cases (16%) in the point-by-point group and 1 (4%) in the dragging group. There was no significant difference in the survival rate free from recurrence after the blanking period between the two groups (log-rank p = 0.1570). The complications were similar between the groups (4% vs. 4%, ns).
Conclusions:
The manual dragging laser irradiation technique using LB1 could shorten the PVI procedure time while preserving clinical effectiveness.
