Texas hospital team 1st in US to use new pulsed ablation tech

A team at Austin, Texas-based St. David's Medical Center became the first team in the U.S. to use a newly FDA-approved novel pulsed field ablation system to treat patients with atrial fibrillation.

Cardiac electrophysiologists at the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute at St. David's Medical Center, Andrea Natale, MD, and Amin Al-Ahmad, MD, performed the procedure, according to a Dec. 5 news release from the health system, though the news was first announced in April. 

The pulsed field ablation system delivers "short-duration, high-energy electrical pulses to the cardiac tissue to destroy cells that cause irregular heart rhythms without using excess heat or cold," the release said. 

Joseph Gallinghouse, MD, also a cardiac electrophysiologist at the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute, performed the first case of a second commercially approved pulsed field ablation system that utilizes a shape-changing catheter that adapts to each patient.

Editor's note: This article was updated Dec. 11, 2024 at 2:10 p.m.

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