Over 1,000 atrial fibrillation cases performed with the HeartLight ablation system

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CardioFocus has announced that more than 1,000 clinical cases have been performed worldwide using its HeartLight Endoscopic Ablation System technology for the treatment of atrial fibrillation.

The company announced that it will be hosting an expert symposium to review the clinical application of HeartLight and key observations made during the first 1,000 cases, which will be held on Thursday evening, 17 January at the InterContinental Hotel in Boston, USA.

Karl-Heinz Kuck, Asklepios Klinik St Georg, Hamburg, Germany, and co-chair of the symposium, said: “Our clinical experience has demonstrated that the HeartLight technology possesses unique capabilities for the treatment of atrial fibrillation. Notably, it allows physicians the ability to directly see the tissue to be ablated, and offers a laser energy source to facilitate the creation of durable lesions irrespective of contact force. My colleagues and I have had the opportunity to evaluate its promising clinical impact, collect and analyse the data, and, now, further refine our technique to give patients the best chance of achieving freedom from atrial fibrillation.”


Presentations will focus on topics including techniques for utilising the endoscopically-guided ablation system, the desired location of pulmonary vein isolation, and the impact of HeartLight laser energy titration on achieving durable results.

There will also be a discussion of clinical results obtained using HeartLight in comparison to systems using alternative energy sources. In addition to Kuck, the event will be co-chaired by Andrea Natale, Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute at St David’s Medical Center, Austin, Texas, and Vivek Y Reddy, Mt Sinai University Medical Center, New York.


“This symposium will bring together physicians at leading cardiac centres throughout the world, who have been involved in performing HeartLight procedures and have played a critical role in advancing this technology. We believe that both the presentations and the collaborative discussions will help enhance our understanding of the ideal clinical application and best practices for the use of the system,” said Stephen Sagon , president and CEO of CardioFocus.


The HeartLight system is CE marked and clinically available in Europe and Australia. In the USA, it is investigational and currently the focus of an ongoing multicentre pivotal trial.